


In Which Somebody Is Actually Concerned That A Fourteen Year Old Is In The Triwizard Tournament

by stellaisnotamermaid



Series: Merlin at Hogwarts [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), Gen, I'm probably forgetting a ton of characters but i can always add them, Immortal Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Immortal Merlin (Merlin), Immortality, M/M, Professor!Merlin, i forget how to tag oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:42:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 23,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21639781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellaisnotamermaid/pseuds/stellaisnotamermaid
Summary: Draco's finally happy. He isn't living with his father, and has freedom to be who he wants. His mother is still trying to find herself, but Professor Erwood lets him stay with him for the summer—but why did Mabon call Awstin Arthur? Are they really who they say they are?
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Merlin at Hogwarts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1449505
Comments: 1152
Kudos: 2105





	1. of strawberries and summer

**Author's Note:**

> Y'ALL THE REASON WHY MOLLY DIDN'T GO TO THE CUP WAS BECAUSE SHE GAVE HER TICKET TO HARRY.  
> I've started saying "Er" a lot due to writing this fic  
> I no longer say "Er" a lot due to this fic taking me so long to write.  
> stream waterparks  
> hehe fluff  
> contains quotes from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

_"I am going to strangle you,"_ Professor Erwood threatened, glaring at his husband.

Awstin just laughed, "I'd like to see you try."

"I will _literally_ strangle you." Professor Erwood repeated, clutching the knife in a deathly white grip.

"Pretty sure it's illegal to kill somebody," Awstin said, popping a strawberry in his mouth.

"Is it illegal to kill a _prat?"_ Professor Erwood demanded, slamming the knife down on the counter. "I _told_ you not to eat any more strawberries."

"What is _happening?"_ Draco asked, hovering in the doorway with the letter that his mother had just sent him in his hand.

"Oh! Morning, Draco." Professor Erwood said. "I was wondering if— _can you not listen for one minute, you dollophead? Stop eating the strawberries!_ —you wanted to go to the Quidditch World Cup? I'm not that interested in it, but this prat—" he jerked his thumb at Awstin, "—wants to see a game and I know that you like it a lot—obviously, because you're a seeker, but—"

"Really?" Draco asked. "That'd be incredible!"

"Okay, I'll book the tickets—" Professor Erwood paused as Draco grabbed a strawberry off of the cutting board. Then he sighed, picked the knife back up, tossed it carelessly in the sink, and walked out the door.

Draco panicked for half a second that he'd crossed a line he shouldn't have, but Awstin just smiled at him and grabbed another strawberry. "How's your summer homework coming?"

"Er—it's going well. I was just about to write a letter to Mother." Draco said, sitting down at the table. "What are these strawberries for?"

"No idea," Awstin grinned, popping another one in his mouth.


	2. in which draco is not an idiot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they arrive at the quidditch world cup  
> ft. Draco is not an idiot

Draco was standing on the stairs, his bag full of the things that he'd packed for the World Cup, when he heard Awstin and Mabon—as he'd requested to be called outside of school, since "Professor Erwood" was too formal for people that were living in the same house—talking about the plans.

  


There was nothing strange about the conversation at first, but then Draco heard Mabon say, "Arthur, _please_ stop shoving your clothes in the suitcase randomly. I had everything organized, you prat."

  


Who was Arthur? It sounded like he was talking to Awstin—nobody else was in the house, and nobody else was going to the game with them as far as he knew.

  


After half a minute of quiet bickering that Draco couldn't hear from his place on the stairs, he stepped into the room, suspicions correct—nobody else was there. So why had Mabon called Awstin Arthur? Did he have an identical twin named Arthur? Even then, you'd think he'd be able to tell the difference between his husband and brother in law.

  


The only thing Draco could think of was that Awstin's name wasn't actually Awstin, but rather Arthur. Why had he told everybody his name was Awstin, if that was the case, though? Awstin was a much rarer name than Arthur, after all.

  


"Morning!" Mabon smiled. "Do you have everything packed?"

  


Draco nodded and lifted up his bag as evidence, then took Mabon and Awstin's extended hands.

  


It felt like his stomach wanted to rip itself out of his body for half of a second, and then he was on a misty moor.

  


Mabon looked slightly ill as well, but recovered quickly to greet two wizards standing nearby. It took Awstin a bit longer to recover than Draco, but he didn't seem to be as affected by the apparation itself.

  


The wizards pointed off in the distance, but Draco couldn't see what they were pointing at.

  


"Thank you!" Mabon said, then walked back over to Draco and Awstin. "We're supposed to go about half a kilometer that way and meet a man named Mr. Robert."

  


⚡⚡⚡

  


The campground was quite hideous. All of the tents clashed—one had peacocks tethered in front of it, while others were covered in shamrocks. Draco supposed that when the only guests there were muggles, it probably looked a lot better.

  


After all, the wizards here were all trying to show each other up or show their pride for their team. Draco had to duck out of the way to avoid being spotted by Seamus and Dean, who had noticed Mabon and run over to make sure he was supporting Ireland.

  


He hung back by Awstin's side for the majority of the conversation, and thankfully wasn't noticed by the two Gryffindors.

  


After freeing himself from the Irish fanatics, Mabon set their stuff down right near the water tap. He bickered with Awstin the entire time over how to put up the tent, and refused to let him help him.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> decided to post two chapters today since the first is so short! also, I'm probably going to keep the chapter titles the same as they are in the book
> 
> i feel like i wanted to add smth to this but forgot. oh well.
> 
> comments and kudos make my day and i literally appreciate y'all sm


	3. In Which They Watch The Game

A gong sounded, and green and red lights burst into life, leading them towards the field. They walked down the path as quickly as they could, following the crowd of people as if they were caught in the riptide.

The energy around them was infectious; Draco felt truly happy for the first time in… a while. When they got to the field, about ten minutes later, Draco gasped in awe. The field was huge—it had to seat at least a hundred thousand people.

Mabon grabbed Awstin's hand, then, checking that Draco was with them, led them to the entrance. The witch at the entrance checked their tickets then told them where to go.

Draco followed them up the stairs, which were carpeted with tyrian purple. When they got up to their seats—a few floors below the top—Draco stared out at the field. The grass looked almost silky from their height; the texture was nearly indecipherable due to distance, but the sun sparkled on the dew in certain spots.

They were exactly in the middle of the goals, and a little above them on the opposite side of the field, there was a huge advert for whatever had sponsored the game.

Time flew by, and before he knew it, the match was about to start. A voice called out from above them.

"Ladies and gentlemen… welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"

Around him, the crowd erupted with a roar, and Draco added his voice to their cheers. The advert across from him had turned into a scoreboard.

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce… the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

The sea of scarlet off to Draco's right roared in approval, and a hundred women sauntered onto the field, their hair flowing behind them. He glanced around and saw that some of the people near him were staring dreamily at the women, half out of their seats.

Awstin had his hands over his ears and was glaring at Mabon, who was gesturing with his hands. Suddenly, the music stopped and Awstin lowered his hands, saying something that Draco couldn't quite hear over the roar of the displeased crowd. There hadn't been much going on, so the anger surrounding them surprised him.

"And now," the announcer called, "kindly put your wands in the air… for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

A swirl of green and gold twirled across the stadium, a comet on Earth. After finishing its loop, it split in half and hurtled towards the goals on either side. A huge rainbow arched into existence, connecting the two spheres for half a second, then it faded and they flew back at each other, forming a giant shamrock in the sky.

A golden rain fell from it, and Draco realized what the shamrock was—leprechauns. The shamrock faded and they drifted down to the field opposite the veela.

The two teams and the referee were introduced to the crowd—seven green blurs, seven scarlet blurs, and one golden blur—and then the whistle was blown and the game had begun.

The quaffle was passed quickly between the chasers, and Draco could barely keep up. Troy, Mullet, and Moran flew close together, dodging around the Bulgarians, until they were across the field and Troy had scored. It was an incredible play, and Draco was so caught up in the shock of it that he almost missed their next play. They were like a well-oiled machine, every player working together seamlessly.

As the match grew longer, the Irish team scored more and more, and the Bulgarian beaters grew more and more frustrated. They were basically relying on pure force to get past the Irish team. Ivanova had managed to get past the Irish keeper and score when Draco saw Krum plummeting towards the ground, Lynch at his tail.

Draco gasped, scanning the grass for the snitch, but didn't see it anywhere. Krum pulled out of the dive at the last possible second, but Lynch wasn't as lucky—he hit the ground audibly, even from as high up as they were.

"It's time-out!" the announced yelled, "as trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!" Draco sucked in a breath in apprehension, watching the wizards flit around the unconscious seeker.

Krum sat up in the air, scanning the field for the golden snitch. Finally, Lynch got to his feet, and Mostafa, the referee, blew his whistle.

Soon enough, the score was one hundred and thirty points to ten with Ireland in the lead. Mullet flew towards the goal, quaffle tightly grasped, and the keeper flew out to meet her. Whatever it was happened so fast that Drcao couldn't quite catch it in time, but he was certain it was foul—the announcer's voice telling them that it was cobbing confirmed his suspicions.

The leprechauns darted around like hummingbirds in anger, then swirled into a mocking laugh when a penalty was given.

The veela on the other side of the field were nearly hissing in anger, leaping to their feet and tossing their hair madly. They started to dance and the referee landed near them, trying to show off his muscles.

A mediwizard marched across the field and kicked him in the shin, and Mostafa seemed to return to himself. He turned on the veela and started yelling at them.

"Now  _ there's  _ something we haven't seen before… Oh this could turn nasty…"

The Bulgarian beaters landed on the ground next to him and started arguing furiously, pointing at the leprechauns, who were still mocking them. He told them to get back in the game, and when they refused, he gave two penalties.

The game only got filthier and filthier—more penalties were given, and the leprechauns flew into a formation where they were a giant hand flipping off the veela. Upon seeing this, the veela darted across the field in fury, throwing handfuls of some sort of fire at the leprechauns. Their features took a dark twist, transforming them into terrifying bird-like creatures.

Ireland scored their seventeenth goal, and Quigley swung a bludger towards Krum's face. He didn't duck in time, and it smashed into his face, most likely shattering his nose.

Blood the color of his robes poured from his face, and he seemed to notice Lynch flying towards the ground. He dove, somehow seeing past all of the blood streaming past him, and then they were nearly neck and neck—Lynch crashed into the ground again, and was trampled by the furious veela.

Draco's eyes darted back towards Krum, who was sitting on his broom with his hand in the air, a glint of gold glittering from within his closed fist.

"IRELAND WINS!" the announcer roared, seeming absolutely shocked by the abrupt end to the match. "KRUM GETS THE SNITCH—BUT IRELAND WINS—good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"

At first, Draco assumed that Krum had misread the scores. Then, he realized that he'd wanted to end the match on his terms—win or lose, he'd wanted it over right then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel like this is short even tho it's 1175 words and I've read fics shorter than this. we love hate comments getting to you :p


	4. in which everybody except for draco is an idiot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> recap: they watched the quidditch world cup

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all I'm so tired but i have to shower and i don't want to get up anyway enjoy this chapter's like 3k words

The crowd basically carried them back to the campground, Irish wizards all but dancing on their way back to the tents. Draco had energy coursing through his veins; he wanted to get on his broomstick right that second and go play in a match, but when they got back to the tent, he got into bed at Mabon's request—they were going to have an early morning.

He was about to drift off—finally—when he heard Mabon's voice echo slightly throughout the tent. "Check."

"Check _ mate,"  _ Awstin countered. "You do realize that I used to make  _ battle plans,  _ right?" What on Earth did he mean by  _ that? _ He had to be under twenty five, and there hadn't been any battles that recently—let alone a battle that would let somebody as young as him lead it.

"Not well," Mabon replied, a smirk evident in his voice even if Draco couldn't see his face.

" _ Mer _ lin," Awstin hissed, voice barely above a whisper. It wouldn't have bothered Draco, normally, but—well—it sounded like he was calling  _ Mabon  _ Merlin.

"Sorry," Mabon said, voice low.  _ "King  _ Arthur. I'm certain you were an incredible battle strategist. Your sister just happened to get past your soldiers and stab you due to sheer luck."

Awstin huffed in irritation, and moved to reply when a scream sounded off from outside.

"What was that?"

Draco froze. He wasn't even sure what to focus on—the fact that they'd called each other by names that were a part of legend, or the fact that it sounded like somebody was being murdered outside.

He didn't have to make the choice, though. The next second, Awstin— _ Arthur— _ was telling him to get up, that they had to go. Draco rolled out of the bed and pulled his robe around him.

"What was that?"

"I'm not sure,"  _ Arthur _ replied, grabbing something that glinted silver off of the table. "We need to go, just in case. Me—Mabon is outside."

Hardly even noticing the slip-up, Draco grabbed his wand and followed Arthur outside. Merlin— _ the  _ Merlin—was standing outside, scanning the campground in worry.

"Get to to the woods." Merlin said, staring at the area where the screams were coming from in trepidation. Draco stared at the campground in horror; four figures were levitating in the air, being contorted as if they were marionettes.

Arthur's hand on his shoulder, gently leading him to the forest, pulled him from his thoughts. Draco startled, then let Arthur navigate through the few tents that were still standing.

They'd just gotten into the woods when Draco heard a loud yelp. He spun to face its source and saw Ron Weasley sprawled across the ground, Hermione Granger's wand glowing above him.

"Tripped over a tree root," Ron said angrily, pulling himself up.

" _ You _ 're here?" Draco asked, not even thinking.

"What's _ that  _ supposed to mean?" Ron demanded.

"Nothing," Draco said quickly. "I just didn't see you, is all."

"Awstin?" Harry asked, noticing Arthur. "What are you doing here?"

"We wanted to see the game," he said, glancing worriedly back towards the camp. "We should probably go deeper into the forest."

"Malfoy'll probably be fine," Ron said bitterly under his breath.

"Why's that?" Draco asked, voice cold.

"Your father's one of those masked figures, isn't he?" Ron asked, then stepped over the root to walk deeper into the forest.

"He's here?" Draco asked, feeling mildly ill. He whirled around to peek at the figures through the trees. He didn't recognize any of them, but if he was here, he was almost certainly _ there. _

"Yeah," Harry said. "How did you not know that?"

"Let's go," Arthur said softly, pushing ahead into the brush. Draco glanced at him, then took a shaky breath and followed. He heard the crackling of twigs that meant Harry and Hermione were behind him.

A little bit away, a group of teenagers were huddled in their pyjamas, arguing in harsh whispers. Upon seeing Ron, one of them ran over to ask him something.

"Er—what?" Ron said, staring at them in confusion.

"Oh," she said, turning away. "'Ogwarts."

_"Attends!"_ Arthur said, and she turned back to face him. After a conversation where they both spoke quite slowly, the teenagers decided to join them.

"You speak French?" Draco asked.

"Only a little. I can read it well enough, but everything else is… not that easy for me."

Suddenly, Draco ran into Harry. He scowled, but Harry barely noticed him as he scanned the ground in a panic.

"Maybe it fell out of your pocket when we were running?" Hermione suggested, her wand alight.

"Yeah, maybe…" Harry said.

"What did you lose now?" Draco sighed, scanning the ground for anything atypical. The French students seemed aggravated that they'd stopped, and Draco could practically feel them breathing down his neck.

"My wand," Harry said, sounding shocked that Draco had even bothered asking—which hurt, if he was honest.

"We're in a forest," Draco said. "How do you expect to find a _wand_ in the dark surrounded by trees?

Harry scowled, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by a house elf bursting onto the path.

"There is bad wizards about!" she squeaked. "People high—high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!" Then she was gone, having run into the bushes on the far side of the path.

"What's up with her? Why can't she run properly?" Ron asked, staring into the dark after her.

"She didn't ask to run away." Draco said, pushing forwards. "Let's get out of here."

"You know, house elves get a  _ very  _ raw deal!" Hermione huffed.

"We're all aware; can we _ move on?" _ Draco scowled. "Maybe complain about it at a time that we aren't about to possibly be killed?"

"Like you'd be hurt," Ron snorted. "None of those _D_ _ eath Eaters _ would harm a hair on your head!"

"And your family  _ has  _ a house elf. Don't act like you care in the slightest." Harry added.

"No, they don't." Draco said softly, voice cool, then stormed off along the path.

A loud bang sounded from the edge of the woods, and Draco heard feet reluctantly chase after him. They passed a group of goblins and a handful of veela who'd distracted a few wizards along the way, but Draco paid them no mind. Harry and Hermione had to tug Ron away from them.

A wizard stumbled out from the surrounding woods, which were so dark that they hadn't even been able to see him. "Who's that? What are you doing in here, all alone?" His voice was awfully familiar, but Draco couldn't quite place it.

"Well—there's sort of a riot going on." Ron said. Swearing, the wizard disapparated.

"Not exactly on top of things, Mr. Bagman, is he?" Hermione asked, frowning at the spot where he'd been not even seconds before.

Draco tuned them out, staring into the woods. They were completely pitch, but Draco could have sworn he saw a flicker of movement—Hermione cut off. The sound of twigs and heavy footfalls echoed into the clearing.

"Put your wands out," Arthur hissed, stepping in between them and the source of the noise. The crackling of leaves came to a sudden stop, and then—

_ "Morsmordre!" _

A brilliant green cloud erupted from the trees in front of them and soared to the sky.

"What the—?" Ron gasped, staring up at the emerald stars in shock. They twisted into a giant skull with a snake as a tongue, rising higher and higher into the sky.

The woods around them erupted with screams of terror. "Run." Draco said, staring up at the sky in horror. "Especially you two."

"What's the matter?" Harry asked, lighting up his wand. Hermione's face was void of all color.

_"Allez,"_ Arthur said, glancing at the French students. They didn't hesitate to run off in the opposite direction of where the spell had originated.

"That's the dark mark, Harry." Hermione whispered, trying to tug him away from the edge of the clearing. "You-Know-Who's sign!"

_ "Voldemort's—?"  _ Harry began, when all of a sudden there were popping noises all around them. Twenty or so wizards appeared around them, wands raised. "Duck!"

The five of them crashed to the ground just before a chorus of voices roared out, "Stupefy!"

A mix of golden and ruby light burst into existence around them. The wizards who were surrounding them started arguing in confusion when a voice broke out from the line of trees.

"Stop!  _ Stop!  _ That's my son!" Mr. Weasley darted towards them, panic etched across his face, as the ruby light dissolved into the forest. Draco stared at the golden bubble surrounding them in confusion until he noticed Merlin next to Mr. Weasley. The shield vanished.

They'd just reached the group when another voice snarled, "Which of you did it? Which of you conjured the dark mark?"

"We didn't do that!" Harry gestured at the emerald skull that was still glittering in the sky.

"We didn't do anything!" Ron argued. "What did you want to attack us for?"

"Do not lie, sir!" The man yelled, face scarlet. "You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!"

"Mr. Crouch," Merlin interrupted, a sickeningly sweet smile plastered across his face in an attempt to placate him. "Do you not realize who you're accusing?"

Mr. Crouch turned towards him, eyes popping. "It doesn't _ matter _ who they are! They're the only ones here—"

"That's Harry Potter," Merlin said, voice growing steely. "I highly doubt that he, of all people, would create the dark mark. You ought to be looking in the forest around them; that's where you'll find your person, if you find them at all."

"Our stunners went right through those trees…" A man said. "There's a good chance we got them…" He raised his wand in front of him and he marched into the darkness.

Half a second later, he shouted, "Yes! We got them! There's someone here! Unconscious! It's—but—blimey—"

"You've got someone?" Mr. Crouch asked, skeptical. "Who? Who is it?"

The man walked back out of the woods, a small figure in his arms—Winky.

Crouch stared at her, then said, "This—cannot—be—no—". He stormed off in the direction of the woods that the man had found her in.

"No point, Mr. Crouch; there's no one else there." the man said, but was ignored. Crouch had been swallowed by the forest, leaves rustling where he'd gone.

"Bit embarrassing," the man said. "Barty Crouch's house elf… I mean to say…"

"Come off it, Amos." Mr. Weasley argued so quietly that Draco almost couldn't hear him. "You don't seriously think it was the elf? The dark mark's a wizard sign. It requires a wand."

Amos held up a wand that looked awfully familiar, but Draco couldn't place it until Merlin said, "Harry."

"Er—yeah?" Harry asked, eyes not leaving Winky's unconscious body.

"Look at the wand."

"Hey—that's mine! I dropped it!"

"You dropped it? Amos asked in disbelief. "Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the mark?"

Merlin let out an all-suffering sigh and facepalmed. "By the—do you really think that he, of all people, is going to conjure the dark mark?"

"Er—of course not. Sorry… carried away…" Amos mumbled, setting Winky down on the ground. "Well then," Amos continued.  _ "She  _ must have done it. She must have picked up the wand and decided to have fun, eh?"

"No," Hermione argued. "Winky has a squeaky, high-pitched voice. The person who cast the spell had a deep voice."

"Yeah, well we'll soon see," Amos said, pulling his wand out. Mr Crouch had reentered the clearing and was staring at him in shock.  _ "Ennervate!" _

Winky twitched, then seemed to slowly wake up. She blinked at them in confusion, then happened to glance up and started bawling in fear.

"Elf!" Amos nearly snarled. "Do you know who I am? I'm a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

Winky started rocking back and forth uncontrollably, hardly able to breathe.

"Leave her," Merlin demanded, eyes flashing dangerously. "She's having a panic attack. Ask her when she calms down. She either did it—highly unlikely, but plausible—and you'll have her here, or she didn't do it—in which case the perpetrator is long gone."

_ "Don't _ tell me what to do," Amos snapped, turning on Merlin, who just stood still and matched his glare. The air seemed to fill with static, and Amos pulled back. "Fine. She has five minutes. I'm checking to see what the last spell this wand cast was."

When Merlin said nothing to contest him, Amos set his wand against the tip of Harry's and cast a spell. A tiny serpent swirled out of Harry's wand, and Hermione gasped in horror.

_ "Deletrius!"  _ Amos said, and the tiny phantom serpent disappeared. "So," he added in triumph, staring down at Winky.

She glanced up at him, face tear-streaked and blotchy, and started swearing that she hadn't done it, that she didn't know how.

_ "You've been caught red-handed, elf! Caught with the guilty wand in your hands!"  _ Amos crowed, holding out Harry's wand as evidence.

Mr. Crouch met Amos' gaze, shaking with fury, and said, voice laced with poison, that—perhaps—Amos was suggesting that he routinely taught his servants to conjure the dark mark.

Amos backtracked, swearing, "Mr. Crouch… not… not at all…"

But Crouch wouldn't relent. Amos had accused the two people  _ least likely  _ to have cast the spell.

"She—she might've picked it up anywhere," Amos stuttered, trying desperately to appease Mr. Crouch. Draco took a step back, feeling as though Crouch was about to explode.

"Precisely," Mr. Weasley said, then asked Winky where she'd found Harry's wand.

"I—I is finding it… finding it there, sir… there… in the trees, sir…" Winky whispered, fidgeting with her tea towel.

"You see, Amos?" Mr. Weasley asked. "Whoever conjured the mark could have disapparated right after they'd done it, leaving Harry's wand behind. A clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them. And Winky here had the misfortune to come across the wand moments later and pick it up."

"But then, she'd have been only a few meters away from the real culprit! Elf, did you see anyone?" Amos demanded, towering over Winky.

She shook her head violently, trembling, and said that she hadn't seen anyone.

"Amos," Crouch's voice dripped with anger. "I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you would want to take Winky into your department for questioning. I ask, however, to allow me to deal with her. You may rest assured that she will be punished."

Winky burst into tears as Amos stared at Crouch, eye twitching, but made no move to object.

"That's ridiculous!" Hermione snapped. "She's done nothing wrong! She found Harry's wand and picked it up—she didn't even use it!"

"Winky has behaved tonight in a manner I would not have thought possible… I told her to remain in the tent. I told her to stay there while I went to sort out the trouble. And I find that she disobeyed me.  _ This means clothes." _

Winky let out a wail, throwing herself at Crouch's feet.

"She's afraid of heights, and those wizards were levitating people! You can't blame her for wanting to get out of the way!" Hermione was nearly shaking in anger, her glare focused on Crouch.

"I have no use for a house elf who disobeys me." Mr. Crouch said, voice icy.

"Well, I think I'll take my lot back to the tent, if nobody's got any objections." Mr. Weasley said, reaching out for Harry's wand. Amos let go of it, glancing around at everybody in the clearing in a mix of anger and resignation.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione drifted over to Mr. Weasley, then the four of them disappeared into the darkness. Merlin set his hand on Arthur's arm, then gestured with his head that they ought to leave, too.

Draco glanced at Winky, shaking at Crouch's feet, then turned away, fighting revulsion, and followed Merlin and Arthur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you liked it!!! i only have to write like two more chapters or smth and then revise them because my beta DISAPPEARED on me smh blame her for any errors  
> (i don't blame her everybody except for me has a life lol)
> 
> p.s. kudos and comments make my heart go 💞💕💞


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the last chapter was the whole thing with the dark mark at the quidditch world cup

When Draco woke up the next morning, he came downstairs to see Merlin and Arthur(because they _had_ to be from legend, didn't they? There were no records of either of them as far as he could tell, as his father had looked into "Mabon Erwood" when he'd taken over the job of History of Magic at Hogwarts and had found practically _nothing._ Plus, Merlin almost never used his wand, and they were both exceptionally knowledgeable on history—specifically that of Camelot, Wales, and a few other random countries throughout the years.) crowded over a copy of  _ The Daily Prophet. _

Arthur was eating a bowl of cereal, and Merlin had an apple. Draco sat down on the opposite side of the island, reading the paper upside down.

_ SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP. _

_ "Rumours that several bodies were removed from the woods…"  _ Arthur snorted. "That's ridiculous; if there were any 'bodies', then they were simply people who passed out from fright."

"Who wrote it?" Draco asked, grabbing the glass of water that had been set at his seat. "The article, that is."

"Er… Rita Skeeter. Who's that?" Arthur replied, frowning down at the article on his hands.

"She hates the ministry." Draco replied, grabbing a strawberry from the center of the island. "Half of what she writes doesn't seem to be true, or it's gilded, exaggerated information."

"This is absolutely ridiculous; how is a country supposed to stick together if none of them trust their leaders to keep them safe?"

"Wow, however do they manage?" Merlin asked, setting his apple down with a sigh. Arthur scowled at the newspaper, then folded it back up and tossed it on the counter.

"School starts up in about a week, doesn't it?" Arthur asked, setting his now-empty bowl in the sink. Merlin nodded, picking his apple core back up and dropping it in the compost bin. "Should we go get your school supplies?"

"Probably," Draco agreed, then paused—how would he pay for them? He didn't have his own bank vault—there was the family one, but he didn't have a key to it anymore. His mom probably had hers, but he wouldn't be able to get it from her in less than a day by owl, and he didn't even know where she was, so they couldn't go find her in person.

"I have a list of the supplies you need," Merlin said, fishing a piece of paper out of his robe. There were only three things on it—dress robes,  _ The Standard Book of Spells, Year 4,  _ by Miranda Goshawk, and  _ The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection. _

"Dress robes?" Draco asked. "What do we need those for?"

Merlin just smiled. "Go get changed and we can go get this stuff." Draco nodded, then turned to run up the stairs.

"Are you coming with us?" Merlin asked Arthur, so quiet that Draco almost couldn't hear from his spot around the corner.

Arthur hummed in response, and Draco heard what sounded like a mug being set down on the counter, followed by an even softer, "Do you want me to?"

He decided that he probably shouldn't intrude on them, and went to get changed. When he came back down, Merlin was cleaning the dishes from breakfast and Arthur was tidying the kitchen.

"Did you need help with anything?" Draco asked, fidgeting by the doorway.

"Hm? No, we're good," Merlin said, rinsing his hands off and snapping his fingers. The dishes vanished from the sink and the leftover fruit from breakfast was cleared from the table. Either he'd found out that Draco had overheard them the previous night, or he'd forgotten that his eyes turned gold when he did magic, because he turned away from the sink without a second thought. "Ready?"

Draco nodded, and Merlin held out his hands for Arthur and Draco to grab. Half a second later, they were in Diagon Alley. Draco's stomach twisted, and he was grateful that he hadn't had a large breakfast.

He looked up and immediately stepped back in confusion. The normally bustling streets were scarce, only maybe one or two other people walking around.

"Why's it so empty?"

"Rita Skeeter's article." Arthur replied coldly. "They don't trust the ministry to keep them safe."

"They  _ can't  _ keep them safe ," Merlin muttered under his breath.

Arthur ignored him and looked at the shops. "Where should we go first?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed!!! sorry that this one is a little short lol.  
> this is (unfortunately) the last chapter in draco's perspective.  
> also if y'all want to be my friend, hmu on twitter or instagram (@stellatheseraph)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the last chapter was about them going school supply shopping

When they got to Hogsmeade station, they were immediately soaked by the pouring rain. Merlin stood there for half a second, sighed, and cast a spell that dried them off and made them and their things impervious to water.

"Are you fine waiting here for the train?" Merlin asked, picking up his suitcase. "I don't think that you're allowed in yet, and I need to set up my classroom."

Draco nodded and moved over to the bench. "I can always set it up during dinner, if you want me to wait with you." Merlin added, but Draco waved him off. Merlin hesitated, then turned and walked up the muddy pathway to the castle.

When he got to the door, Peeves tried to throw a water balloon at him. Merlin barely saw it in time, but he managed to duck away from it. It exploded on the ground and Merlin waved his fake wand to clean up the puddle.

It took him a few minutes to get to his classroom, as he had forgotten which stairs moved where and when, but still managed to set up everything and get back to the Great Hall before the students arrived.

By the time students started pouring into the hall, only three chairs were empty at the staff table. One was McGonagall's, as she'd had to rush out of the hall to stop Peeves from chucking water balloons at the students pouring into the school. He assumed that one of the seats belonged to whoever the next Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was, but he hadn't the slightest clue who, exactly, that was, as he'd barely gotten to the school in time. The last seat probably belonged to Hagrid, as he had to take the first years through the lake.

Once the hall was filled with all of the older students and the first years had arrived, McGonagall sat the Sorting Hat on a stool and it started singing a song. After it had finished—and been greeted with applause—it sorted the first years.

The majority of the students seemed less interested in the sorting this year, staring longingly at their nonexistent food. When the last name had been called, they broke out in cheers. Dumbledore told them to tuck in, and food appeared in front of their seats.

Merlin picked around his pasta salad, mostly just people watching. Draco was sitting with a few first years, looking somewhere in between happy and annoyed. Hermione wasn't eating anything; Ron was waving different desserts under her nose.

Once everybody had eaten, Dumbledore stood up and reminded the students of the rules that year. When he announced that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup wouldn't take place that year, the hall erupted in protests.

"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing through the school year," Dumbledore continued. "I am sure that you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts—"

The doors to the Great Hall crashed open. Merlin felt his magic stir and try to reach out to investigate the man who had just entered—somebody with a long staff, traveling cloak, scarred face, and an electric blue prosthetic eye. The eye was rolling in its socket, looking in every direction—even behind him—until it followed an invisible path up to Merlin and stayed there.

The man walked up to Dumbledore, who muttered a few words of greeting and gestured towards the empty seat on his right. The man sat down, sniffed suspiciously at a dish full of food, then took a knife out of his pocket and started eating.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Dumbledore asked into the dumbfounded silence. "Professor Moody."

Dumbledore broke the silence by going back into an explanation about what the Triwizard Tournament was—which Merlin tuned out in favour of studying the new professor, as he'd seen it happen through the news for several centuries.

He heard sudden booing and snapped back to the present, studying the students' faces. The people who looked annoyed were mostly the younger students; Merlin assumed that this meant Dumbledore had just told them about the age requirement—seventeen years old—to enter the tournament.

Then, Dumbledore announced that it was time for them to go to sleep, and the students rushed to get out of the Great Hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyway y'all are so frickin nice if you want to be my friend hmu on twitter or instagram (@stellatheseraph)  
> another short chapter??? screw it imma post another chapter tonight.  
> also ty I_Met_A_Girl for checking my typos 😔😔😔


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the last chapter was about their arrival at hogwarts

Merlin was just about to leave the Great Hall when Morgana swooped in from above him and held out a small scrap of paper. It was yesterday's  _ Daily Prophet— _ specifically an article written by Rita Skeeter.

He looked at the heading and scoffed— _ Further Mistakes at the Ministry of Magic _ , by Rita Skeeter. It mentioned Arthur Weasley—under the name Arnold, because Rita Skeeter couldn't seem to ever be correct—and made Merlin's blood boil. Merlin shoved the scrap of paper into his pocket angrily, then finished his cereal and left the Great Hall.

He lost himself in teaching, and almost managed to completely forget the incident in the first place. When he was walking down to dinner, he saw Pansy Parkinson talking to Ron. She had a piece of paper in her hands and was waving it in his face, smirking.

She said something and Harry snapped back at her, then turned away. She blasted something bright white at him, missing by millimeters, before Merlin could even react.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LASSIE!" A voice roared as Harry reached for his wand. He spun around, surprise covering his face. Moody was towering over a ferret that was standing in Pansy's place. Merlin started storming over, outraged. Moody had transformed a  _ child _ as a form of punishment. Sure, that child was awful, but she hadn't done any physical harm and it surely wasn't anything that would stick with them for more than a month at most.

"What the  _ hell _ do you think you're doing?" he seethed, throwing a hand out in the direction of Pansy. She transformed back into herself, wrapping her arms around her legs in a self-soothing way.

"Teaching," Moody replied casually, putting his wand back into his robes.

"Teaching?" Merlin repeated. " _ Teaching? _ That's literally—you turned her into a  _ ferret.  _ What if she hadn't been able to transform back? This will scar her for life—if you want somebody to act better, you have to reinforce positive behaviour, not punish bad behaviour. If you teach them that doing something wrong will make them hurt, they'll just find out how to do it without being caught."

"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," Moody growled.

"Really?" Merlin asked, detest seeping into his voice. "It sounds—to me, at least—that you're doing this to help yourself, not her. If you want to teach somebody, you have to treat them with respect, not like they're the scum of the earth. Sure, running out of spite works for some, but it just breaks others."

Merlin glanced down at her. "You may go."

"I'm not done with her," Moody replied, stretching his arm out. She froze.

"Yes," Merlin said, "you are."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ew i wrote more in one sitting yesterday than i did in this and the last chapter combined... longer chapters to come...


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> last chapter was about moody turning pansy into a ferret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was legit 116 words so i combined two and now y'all have... a grand total of 506 words. oops.  
> next chapter's over twice this length and i just... where is my consistency lol. enjoy!!

The classes that had Defense Against the Dark Arts before his often had difficulty focusing; they spent the whole class whispering to each other about whatever they'd learned, and Merlin was sick of it.

"What's the Great Migration Theory?" Merlin asked, picking up a small bag.

Luna half-raised her hand, not looking up from the journal she was doodling in.

"Ms. Lovegood?" Merlin asked.

"It's believed that magical folk drifted together when humans were still nomadic," she replied. "Those who had magical abilities left those who didn't and made their way around the world on their own."

"Correct," Merlin said, reaching into the bag and pulling out a piece of candy. "Five points to Ravenclaw. Catch."

⚡⚡⚡

On the thirtieth, classes ended half an hour early. As a result, he had to rush through explaining the believed origins of magic schools in North America.

When he led his class down to the front of the school, they were greeted by McGonagall, who was organizing the students based off of their age. It was nearly six by the time that they saw a sign of the other schools—a huge powder-blue chariot was soaring above the forbidden forest.

It was led by a dozen abraxan, who landed on the ground in front of the castle with a humongous crash. A woman taller than even Hagrid stepped out of the carriage, which had the Beauxbatons crest on its door. She was dressed head to toe in black satin and was adorned with opals that glittered like stars on her neck and fingers.

"My dear Madame Maxime," Dumbledore greeted. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," she exclaimed, "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, thank you." He replied.

Roughly half a dozen students piled out of the carriage, all in their late teens. They seemed to be wearing fine silk—some had scarves or shawls, but none of them had cloaks, and were all shivering. They stared at Hogwarts, apprehension painted across their faces.

Madame Maxime and Dumbledore spoke for a little bit, then, after being reassured that the abraxans would be well taken care of, the Beauxbaton students went inside.

The Hogwarts students fell silent again—then there was a loud vacuuming noise, and a huge whirlpool appeared in the center of the black lake, sending waves splashing onto the muddy shore. First, a large black mast appeared, and then that was followed by the rest of the ship. It looked like it had had better days—almost as if it had been stored at the bottom of the ocean for four hundred years.

A few moments later, an anchor was thrown overboard, followed by a large plank that led to the banks of the lake. A figure walked down the plank, followed by several others. As he walked closer, Merlin recognized him as Igor Karkaroff.

Their gazes met and Merlin immediately looked away. Once he heard Karkaroff speaking to Dumbledore, he chanced a glance at the Durmstrang headmaster, and saw his piercing glare in Merlin's direction, mild confusion etched into his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also if y'all are here bc of merthur, i was bored the other day and wrote a oneshot soulmate au! not sure how to link stuff but it's called colors stained upon your skin and if you click on my user you can find it there :)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> last chapter was about the other schools arriving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is like 2h late lol

Merlin walked out of breakfast the next morning as quickly as he could—having Karkaroff and Moody staring at him throughout the entire dinner had made his skin crawl—and decided to take a look at the Goblet of Fire—who was putting their names in for each school, who was going to try to cheat their way across the age line, etc. There was a crowd of people around it, mainly Hogwarts students.

On a typical weekend morning, the school was nearly empty at this hour. Today, it was alive, hundreds of students humming with pent up energy and excitement over the Triwizard Tournament.

Fred, George, and Lee raced down the stairs, cackling in triumph. When they got to the bottom floor, they raced over to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and Fred whispered in their ears.

"I'm not sure this is going to work, you know," Hermione warned, meeting their eyes. "I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this."

Fred shrugged, grabbed a small slip of parchment from his pocket, and walked up to the age line. Everybody in the room watched him as he stepped over it, their breaths held. When nothing happened, George let out a shout of joy and leapt after his brother.

Merlin sighed as the golden circle sizzled and threw the twins over three meters away. Less than a second later, they'd sprouted long white beards.

Merlin stared at the twins. He waved his hand vaguely in their direction, removing their unwanted facial hair, and resisted the urge to facepalm.

The looked around in confusion, but by the time their gazes landed on where he'd been, he'd left the room entirely. The corridor he walked into was empty other than one person—Madame Maxime.

"You must be Mabon Erwood," she said, accent thick. "I've heard much about you from Dumbly-dorr."

"Oui," Merlin said, forcing a diplomatic smile across his face. "Enchanté, madame."

Madame Maxime looked pleased for half a second, but somebody clearing their throat behind him stopped her from replying to him.

"Not conspiring to make sure that Durmstrang loses, I hope?" Karkaroff asked, leaning against the wall next to the doorway.

Madame Maxime huffed and stormed off, leaving Merlin alone with Karkaroff.

"You seem very familiar," Karkaroff said, pushing off of the wall and walking over to Merlin. "Have I met you before?"

_ Bright green light. _

_ A dazzling red. _

_ Glittering gold. _

"I don't believe so," Merlin replied, voice stilted. "When and where do you recognize me from? Perhaps we only met in passing?"

A flash of something—Merlin couldn't quite decipher  _ what  _ it was, as it was gone too quickly—passed across Karkaroff's face, which then spread into a thin smile. "No… I must have been mistaken. Forgive me."

⚡⚡⚡

Merlin spent the majority of the day hiding in his office, pretending to grade papers. Just before dinner, Hermione knocked on the door.

"Come in," he said, pushing the papers that he'd _ definitely _ graded off to the side. She had a box in her hands that was full of pins. Merlin felt dread pool in his stomach when he realized why she was here. This was going to be… a long conversation, to say the least.

"I was wondering if you wanted to join S.P.E.W.?" she asked, setting the box down on the floor next to her. "It's—"

"I know what it is," Merlin interrupted, fidgeting with his quill. "And I completely understand why you're doing it. Technically, they're slaves. In a way, most of them  _ are  _ brainwashed. It's just… what do you know about their history in this school?"

"Almost nothing!" Hermione said. "They've been completely ignored in  _ every _ book about this school."

"Helga Hufflepuff, when helping to found this school, gave the house elves their jobs so that they could  _ avoid  _ being abused. If any of them wanted a day off, or pay, they could ask and they'd get it. That's one of the good things about Dumbledore. There's one elf here who  _ does  _ get paid, and who  _ does  _ have days off."

"There is?" Hermione asked, anger dissipating for half a second before rearing up again. "Then why aren't they all paid? Why don't all of them have days off?"

"They don't want them," Merlin shrugged. "They're happy working. If you think that means that they're brainwashed, then by all means go try to educate them. If you're trying to get equal rights for house elves, you have to work on getting them to see their worth in a way that won't offend them before forcing people to treat them in a way that neither the house-elf wants nor the wizard wants."

"I… think I understand. Thank you, Professor."

⚡⚡⚡

By the time Merlin made his way down to the Great Hall for dinner, it was nearly full. He put some ratatouille on his plate and dug in, hardly paying any attention to the rest of the room. He'd been one of the last few people still eating, and his plate had only been clean for half a minute when Dumbledore got to his feet.

A silence fell across the room as the students and fellow staff looked up to Dumbledore.

"Well," he said, "the goblet is almost ready to make its decision. I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them to please come up to the top of the hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber, where they will be receiving their first instructions."

He waved his wand and extinguished most of the lights in the room. The Goblet of Fire was the brightest thing in the room and demanded the attention of everybody in the room.

The bright blue-white flames hissed and turned scarlet, letting out a few sparks. A tongue of flame leapt out of the goblet, tossing a piece of parchment into the air carelessly. The room gasped as the note flitted through the air and landed in Dumbledore's hand.

"The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum," Dumbledore announced, voice loud and clear. The room erupted with cheers and shouts of pride.

Krum rose from his seat at the Slytherin table and walked up to the front, pausing in front of Karkaroff, who cheered louder than the rest of the room combined.

Once the chitter died out, everybody focused on the goblet again. When Fleur's name fluttered out of it, the majority of the Beauxbatons students seemed upset—a mix between fury and jealousy.

Cedric Diggory was the champion for Hogwarts—he was definitely a devoted student, and had managed to become a prefect, so Merlin wasn't too surprised to hear his name. He was, however, at least mildly surprised to see the goblet release a fourth name. When Dumbledore read the name out loud, Merlin was much less surprised.

Because who else would it be, but Harry Potter?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANYWAY are there any hp characters y'all hc as trans? i want to say screw you to jkr. (nb counts, too). realized that i didn't put much diversity in gender so oops gotta fix that.
> 
> ALSO I FORGOT BUT HAPPY HANUKKAH TO THOSE WHO CELEBRATE IT.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> last chapter was the goblet of fire stuff

The majority of the students looked outraged, but nobody was more surprised than Harry himself. Everybody had spun around to face him, but he hardly seemed to notice. He was all but shell-shocked.

McGonagall stood up and swept past Bagman and Karkaroff to whisper harshly in Dumbledore's ear. He frowned, then repeated himself. "Harry! Up here, if you please!"

When Harry didn't move, Hermione pushed him gently.

He moved up to the front of the hall as if walking through molasses; every single person's eyes were upon him as he made his way to the staff table.

Merlin followed the other staff into the side chamber and hovered in the back, carefully watching everybody's reactions to the news of Harry joining them.

"Dumbly-dorr must 'ave made a mistake wiz ze line," Madame Maxime shrugged, black eyes staring at Harry sharply.

"It is possible, of course." Dumbledore said politely.

"He didn't," Merlin interrupted. "The age line was cast perfectly. Nobody a second under the age of seventeen could have gotten past it."

"And how would you know that?" Karkaroff demanded. "Are you so willing to blindly defend your headmaster without proof, so certain that this boy did not cheat?"

It wasn't like Merlin could tell him that he felt every single spell, no matter how miniscule, cast within the castle at any given moment. "With the amount of times people have attempted to kill Harry, I'd be surprised if his name  _ didn't  _ make its way into the Goblet of Fire."

Karkaroff turned towards Bagman and Crouch. "You are our—er—objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?"

"We must follow the rules," Crouch replied darkly, "and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."

"Well if we can't take Harry out of it, surely we can trace the piece of parchment back to whomever put it in?" Merlin suggested diplomatically. "Surely there's a spell somebody could think of to—"

"No," Moody interrupted, standing in the doorframe. "Whoever put Potter's name in put it in knowing he'd have to compete if it came out. It was a very skilled witch or wizard who put the boy's name in the goblet…"

"Ah, what evidence is zere of zat?" Madame Maxime demanded.

"Because they hoodwinked a very powerful magical object!" Moody exclaimed. "It would have needed an extremely strong confundus charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools compete in the tournament… I'm guessing they submitted Potter's name under a fourth school to make sure he was the only one in his category."

"And how did you figure that out in such a short period of time?" Merlin asked, meeting Moody's glare.

"It's my job to think like dark wizards do." Moody snarled.  _ "He _ ought to remember."

Karkaroff's face was beet red, but he didn't say anything.

"Your job?" Merlin asked. "This is a  _ school,  _ and you're a  _ teacher,  _ not an auror, right now. You shouldn't have to be thinking like that; it shouldn't _ occur to you  _ that you have to think like that. Schools are supposed to be  _ safe,  _ not somewhere where a child can get murdered and the staff can't do anything about it."

"How this situation arose, we do not know." Dumbledore interrupted placatingly. "It seems to me, however, that we have no choice but to accept it. Both Cedric and Harry have been chosen to compete in the tournament. This, therefore, they will do…"

"'No choice but to accept it'?" Merlin asked. "I'm certain that if there's somebody powerful enough to trick the goblet into thinking that there are four schools, somebody here is powerful enough to take his name away from the list of competitors—after all, you're supposed to be the greatest wizard alive with that wand, are you not?"

Dumbledore's hand tightened protectively around his wand, but before he could say anything, Merlin continued.

"Or do you  _ want  _ him to compete? After all, you did nothing to prevent  _ Voldemort  _ from attacking him his first year here—or his second, when there was a  _ horcrux  _ and a  _ basilisk  _ terrifying the entire school. It's almost as if you  _ want  _ him to fight in all of these battles—are you trying to get him killed? Or prepare him for something that he shouldn't even have to deal with in the first place?"

When Dumbledore didn't respond, Merlin turned on his heel and stormed from the hall. Nearly every student was watching him, dumbfounded.

Nobody  _ ever  _ talked to Dumbledore like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you celebrate christmas, i hope you had a wonderful christmas!!! if you don't, happy holidays/winter break/etc!!!


	11. in which merlin tries to knock some common sense into the houses that are mad at harry (and eavesdrops a bit)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i think the last chapter was merlin yelling at dumbledore? tbh idek at this point aH

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANYWAY i would like to apologize for not having any trans* rep yet. this was all written a while ago, and i want to make sure that i write it correctly, not just shove it in there so it's there, JK ROWLING.
> 
> I also don't want to write it so it like... overshadows ppls existence or whatever. everybody finds out what their gender is differently and like obvs not everybody of the same gender acts the same so YE. also not sure what it's actually like Being Trans bc i am cis.
> 
> so I'm gonna try to figure out how the puzzle pieces fall since I've always had some of the characters hc'd as trans* but didn't actually Process that thought since it's focused around merlin not the other characters BUT if he's like their adopted parent away from home/ bc he's actually trying to help them bc decent humans + some of them flock to him I could maybe have ppl who are like. questioning their gender come talk to him? idk. plz comment ideas bc i don't want to misrepresent ppl.

When Merlin came down for breakfast the next morning, most of the teachers refused to meet his eyes—especially Hagrid and McGonagall. He ate his toast quickly and was about to head back to his classroom to hide from people when he noticed Hermione rushing from the hall. She had a napkin wrapped around several pieces of toast and was headed up the stairs back to Gryffindor's dorms.

Merlin watched her go curiously, then headed out to the black lake. Durmstrang's ship was still moored in the same spot it had been when they'd arrived, and added to the slightly  _ off _ atmosphere that filled the air.

He laid down on the grass and pulled out the small mirror that he kept on him at almost all times. He was about to start the spell that would allow it to act as a telephone of sorts when he heard voices getting closer. He shoved the mirror in his pocket and turned invisible, standing up as quietly as he could.

_ "He'd want you to tell him,"  _ Hermione said, voice hushed. "He's going to find out anyway—"

"How?" Harry asked.

"Harry, this isn't going to be kept quiet. The tournament's famous, as are you. I'll be really surprised if there isn't anything in the  _ Daily Prophet _ about you competing… you're already in half the books about You-Know-Who, you know… and Sirius would rather hear about it from you, I know he would."

"Okay, okay, I'll write to him." Harry relented. "But before we go back up to the school, something weird happened when we were in the side chamber. Professor Erwood just—completely _ snapped  _ at Dumbledore, as if it was his fault that my name got put in the goblet."

"He did?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah—and he went off about Quirrell and the Chamber of Secrets. Mentioned how the most powerful wizard in the world ought to at least try to make his school safe."

Hermione stopped walking and frowned. "Well—it's not like Dumbledore could have done anything about those things?"

"He did say that Dumbledore could've kept a closer eye on the goblet, or something like that."

"I guess…" Hermione said. "I mean—he trusts everybody that's here, doesn't he? What else could he have done other than spy on his friends?"

"I'm not sure," Harry replied. "He seemed really upset, though…"

⚡⚡⚡

Luna Lovegood was the only person outside of Gryffindor who didn't seem upset with the house over Harry being a Triwizard champion. In her class, she was the only one who actually spoke to their partner throughout the entire period.

Merlin stopped class fifteen minutes early when he realized that Luna and Ginny were the only students who were getting any work done.

"Please put your essays away for now," Merlin said, clearing the chalkboard of instructions for the class. "I want you to each come up with one reason as to why you aren't talking to your classmates today. You have five minutes; if you finish early we'll end at that time. Please set your piece of parchment on my desk when you're done with it."

It was only two minutes later when all of the excuses were on his desk, so he put them into a neat pile and picked them up.

"They cheated," Merlin wrote. "They don't care that Harry cheated. They helped Harry cheat. They don't care that Harry cheated. They're upset with us. They aren't talking to us; why should we talk to them?"

Merlin wrote the last few reasons on the chalkboard and set the piece of chalk down. "Does anybody see a common theme here? The Ravenclaw students are upset with Gryffindor for cheating. Are any of you seventeen or older?"

Nobody raised their hand; they were, after all, mostly thirteen.

"So could any of them have put Harry's name in the goblet?"

When nobody responded, Merlin scratched out "They cheated" and "They helped Harry cheat".

"They had nothing to do with it—not that Harry cheated; if you'd seen his face, you would have known that he hadn't expected to be called up. He's an awful actor. I expect you to finish your partner essays before next class; you wasting your class time, unfortunately, does not excuse you.”

⚡⚡⚡

Throughout the day, most of the Hogwarts students had little pins stuck to their robes. They swapped between reading  _ Support Cedric Diggory, the Real Hogwarts Champion _ and  _ Potter Stinks. _

Merlin made them take them off and went over the same thing he had with his third year class. The only student who Merlin  _ didn't  _ see wearing one—besides Luna and Gryffindor students—was Cedric himself. How ironic.

He'd just started going over why wearing them was pointless when there was a knock at his door, and Cedric had to go meet up with Bagman.

"Who made these badges?" Merlin asked right before dismissing his class. One of Cedric's friends, who had seemed impartial to whether they wore a pin or not, said that Pansy Parkinson had made them. One of their friends scowled and smacked them gently on the arm, then sped out of the classroom.


	12. in which there are dragons and merlin is, as ever, nosy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> idk what the last chapter was abt lol it's been a long week. i think i named that chapter title tho. so that might help.

"She wrote  _ what  _ now?" Merlin asked, grabbing his robes out of his wardrobe.

"That he thinks he's invincible in this tournament due to his dead parents watching over him, and that he's dating Hermione."

Merlin sat down on the edge of his bed and sighed. "And  _ why  _ does she still have a job? None of that is factual. With what Moody said, he's definitely got to be worried that whoever put his name in the goblet is trying to get him killed. And there's no way Harry is dating—or even fancies—Hermione. They act more like siblings."

"Don't ask me," Arthur replied, setting the paper down on the counter. "And—I know this is unrelated—but do you know if I'll be able to visit you soon? I don't think that Norbert likes talking to me very much, and there's nobody else to talk to."

"You miss me," Merlin replied, a smile stretching over his face.

"That's ridiculous." Arthur said, half a smirk crossing over his face. "Why would I ever miss you, of all people?"

"Hm," Merlin smiled. "Not sure—you definitely miss me more than I do you, though."

"I do not!" Arthur crossed his arm that wasn't holding the mirror over his chest, and Merlin laughed.

"Sure you don’t. And I'm pretty sure you can come soon, actually, since the first task will be on Tuesday."

"I'll be there."

⚡⚡⚡

When Merlin headed to Hogsmeade later that day, he checked in the shops for anything that would interest Arthur. He settled on a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, since that was sure to make him laugh after he was done being upset with Merlin for giving them to him in the first place.

After buying them and teleporting them to his chambers, he headed over to the Three Broomsticks. Draco was sitting alone at one table, so Merlin sat down next to him. Between the chaos of the start of the new year and the Triwizard Tournament, they hadn’t had much time to talk. Merlin knew that his students were going to be distracted around the times of the events, so he was trying to get through as much as he could at once without overwhelming his students with work so that they could have some flexible time around the tournaments.

"How's your year been so far?" Merlin asked, setting a butterbeer in front of Draco.

"Good!" Draco smiled. "There are a couple first years that I'm tutoring, and they're almost treating me like I'm their brother or something. It's really sweet."

"That's good," Merlin smiled. "How's your school work going? Doing any better in Care of Magical Creatures?"

"Better this year, but I'm honestly kind of terrified of the animals that we're dealing with—they're called blasting skrewts, or something?"

"Huh." Merlin said. "I've never heard of them."

That alone was weird enough, as he’d been around for quite a while and had sat down and taken the time to read—or listen to Arthur read—nearly every book he’d stumbled across, but their name made Merlin fear for the students’ safety. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Hagrid, but he did  _ not _ trust Hagrid. He had good intentions, but often didn’t realize that, hey, this creature is probably going to kill somebody.

He was about to ask Draco if he wanted to hang out with him and Arthur during the first task when he noticed Hagrid and Moody approach Hermione. She barely seemed to notice them, hunched over a notebook. 

"I'll be right back," Merlin said, pushing through the crowd and turning invisible. He sat down on the edge of the bench near where Hermione was seated.

"Nice cloak, Potter." Moody said, bending down over Hermione's notebook.

"Can your eye—I mean, can you—?" Harry asked in amazement, and Merlin finally realized why Hermione wasn't sitting with Ron.

"Yeah, it can see through invisibility cloaks," Moody said. "And it's come in useful at times, I can tell you."

Hagrid was beaming in the vague direction of where Harry was seated, but it was obvious that he had no idea where Harry actually was.

"Harry, meet me tonight at midnight at me cabin. Wear that cloak." Hagrid whispered, then stood up straight and said loudly, "Nice ter see yeh, Hermione."

Merlin waited for half a second, then stood up. Thankfully, it didn't appear as though Moody could see him when he was invisible, so he hadn't been confronted at all. He pushed back through the crowd, letting his glamour fade, then sat down next to Draco again.

"What was that about?" Draco asked.

"I'm not sure…" Merlin replied, watching Hermione stand up. "Did you want to hang out with us during the first task?"

"Us?" Draco asked.

"Oh, yeah—Awstin is coming, too.".

“Awstin?” Draco asked, mouth tilted up in a crooked smile. "Sure; is anybody else going to sit near us?"

"Not that I know of; Luna and Ginny might."

Draco hesitated, then nodded. "Okay."

⚡⚡⚡

At eleven thirty, Merlin turned himself invisible and headed over to Hagrid's hut, skin itching. Why would Hagrid have Harry meet him so late after he was supposed to be asleep, especially when somebody was clearly trying very hard to get him killed?

He got to the cottage before Harry did, and had to watch Hagrid try to get a comb through his hair. What on Earth was he  _ doing? _ There was no reason that he ought to dress up to see Harry, and almost nobody else was awake at this time—just students finishing homework that was due next class, Filch, and Mrs. Norris.

By the time that Harry got there, Merlin had given up on Hagrid's chances of doing his hair. All of the comb's teeth had broken off and gotten stuck in his hair, and it looked the same as it had when he'd started messing with it.

When Harry got there—a quick knock on the door, still hidden under his cloak—Hagrid opened the door almost immediately.

"You there, Harry?" Hagrid whispered, glancing around his doorstep.

"Yeah" Harry replied, slipping the cloak off once he'd gotten inside the cabin. Merlin moved as quietly as he could to get inside without alerting Hagrid of his presence. "What's up?"

"Got summat ter show yeh," Hagrid said. Harry told him that he had to be back at the castle by one—which was weird, as it was already ridiculously late, but Harry never seemed to care about the curfew before. Hagrid ignored him in favour of wrenching the door open and striding out of the cabin.

He walked up to the Beauxbatons carriage and knocked on the door three times. Madame Maxime opened it, smiling at Hagrid.

"Ah, 'Agrid… is it time?"

Hagrid greeted her, attempting to say «bonsoir» but getting something that sounded much more like "bong-sewer", and held out a hand to help her down.

Then the two of them—and probably Harry, but Merlin couldn't quite tell—took off at a speed that had Merlin silently curse, then cast a spell that would make his footfalls silent.

They'd been walking for quite a bit when Merlin suddenly heard  _ something _ that made him almost trip over his feet. When whatever it was didn't sound again, he ran back over to where Hagrid and Madame Maxime were walking, Madame Maxime asking where exactly they were headed.

Hagrid refused to answer.

After a while, once they'd gone so far that the black lake was out of sight, Merlin heard that  _ something  _ again—only this time, he recognized it. Dragons. Not true dragons, of course; other than Hagrid, nobody had named a dragon since Aithusa herself, nearly two thousand years ago.

Merlin stumbled forward, nearly falling over again in an attempt to see around the last clump of trees. There were four gorgeous, full grown dragons in the clearing, surrounded by nearly thirty wizards.

They were straining against their harnesses, shrieking in a combination of fear and anger.

"Shhh," Merlin whispered in dragon-speak as quietly as he could. "Calm down, it'll be okay." He wasn't entirely sure of that, but he'd rather they be content than scared.

A hush fell over the clearing as all four dragons relaxed and laid down in the grass. The wizards flicked their wands hesitantly, and the leads were secured to pegs in the ground.

Merlin stared at the dragons in a mixture of amazement and confusion. Why were there dragons at Hogwarts? Especially a dragon as dangerous as the Hungarian Horntail? Merlin wasn’t sure that the few wizards that were there would have been able to calm them down without his help, and who  _ knew _ what would have happened then?

One of the wizards—a ginger-haired person who seemed to know Hagrid much better than the other wizards did—frowned at Madame Maxime. "I didn't know you were bringing her, Hagrid. The champions aren't supposed to know what's coming—she's bound to tell her student, isn't she?"

Merlin crept over to the closest dragon—the Horntail—and set his hand against her cheek. She startled for half a second, then breathed in deeply and relaxed. Somehow, she must have recognized him from his scent despite never meeting him before.

Her tail, adorned with bronze barbs, wrapped loosely around her eggs and she set her head down, drowsy. Merlin backed away from her carefully, and made his way back over to where Harry ought to be. After all, waking a sleeping dragon was never a good idea.

The wizard was quoting something his mother had said about Harry in relation to the Daily Prophet. Merlin had to stifle his snicker at that—shouldn't everybody who knew Harry know that everything that had been written was inflated and coated with several layers of exaggeration, if not completely false?

A soft crunch over to Merlin's side alerted him to Harry leaving the clearing, so he turned and made his best effort to follow him. After a bit, Harry sped up, his loud footfalls making it much easier to track him. He could probably perform a spell that enabled him to see Harry, but he didn't want to mess with the magic of the invisibility cloak, even if Harry often abused its privilege. They were rare enough as it was.

Merlin noticed Karkaroff just before Harry was about to crash into him, and reacted instinctively. They both froze where they were, and Merlin caught up to Harry, turned him so that he wouldn't crash into Karkaroff, and unfroze them. They continued on their way, not even noticing each other in the dark.

Merlin didn’t trust Karkaroff no matter how much  _ Dumbledore _ was okay with him walking around the castle. They’d only had a quick run-in, and it’d been years ago—when Karkaroff had first decided to become a Death Eater, and Merlin had stopped him and his friends from terrorizing a family of muggles.

Once Harry made it up to Gryffindor Tower, Merlin turned off towards his room, hoping that Harry returning to his dorm meant that he would no longer be up to trouble.

He collapsed into his bed once he made it back to his room, not even bothering to change out of his robes. He waved his hand vaguely, allowing a glass of water to appear on his nightstand. He drank it quickly, then picked up his mirror.

Thankfully, Arthur was still awake, one book or another in his hands. Merlin recounted his day, realizing that he hadn't told Arthur that Draco would be sitting with them for the first task—or that he could even come for certain in the first place.

"Greatest sorcerer to ever live, and you can't remember to let your husband know that he has to travel  _ hundreds  _ of kilometers to get to Hogwarts."

"We literally live less than one hundred kilometers away." Merlin dead panned. "Greatest king to ever live, and you can't keep track of where you live in relation to your husband's job."

"In my defense—"

  
"I  _ know  _ Hogwarts is unplottable, you prat. That doesn't mean you can't know where it is."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am so very tired. i have school tomorrow. i went to bed at 4am three nights ago, 11pm two nights ago, and 2am last night. I've been waking up at 9:30. i have to wake up at 6. help.


	13. in which a ton of minors try to sneak past a protective mother dragon and the last dragonlord frets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the last chapter was about harry going to visit hagrid and seeing the dragons

When Merlin woke up the next morning—having gotten roughly four hours of sleep—he decided to head over to the library. He couldn't quite remember where the book he wanted was—it'd been so long ago, and he'd found it by chance, thrown in with books on an unrelated subject—he’d be surprised if the book had even belonged there, but had no idea who else would have put it there besides a librarian.

The library was practically abandoned when he got there. At the crack of dawn, only Madame Pince and a few seventh years were in the library. He started skimming the shelves as soon as he got there, but had no luck. His book was, yet again, missing.

At some point, the rest of the castle seemed to wake up, and several noisy students had come in to gossip about Krum, who was sitting in a corner, surrounded by books. Merlin was, quite frankly, surprised at how thick the books were—not due to doubting Krum’s intelligence, but rather due to the fact that it had taken Merlin  _ years _ to learn a second language, although that may have been because magic had been illegal and he hadn’t needed words for the majority of his spells, well, ever.

After having gone over a shelf three times and not remembering actually  _ seeing  _ any of the books that were there, Merlin decided to give up. He'd nearly searched the entire library by that point, and hadn't seen the slightest trace of that book. It was getting ridiculous at this point.

⚡⚡⚡

After lunch on Tuesday, Merlin made his way down to where the first task would be held. None of the champions were in sight, so Merlin assumed that they were in the tent that had been set up across from where the spectators could sit. Harry had been extremely distracted in class earlier, and Merlin hoped that he'd be able to focus for the task. He already had the disadvantage of age, and these tasks were designed to be dangerous.

_ "Mer _ lin, are you going to just stand there or come sit down?" Arthur asked, appearing at his side.

"You're here!" Merlin exclaimed, turning around to face his husband, a smile breaking out across his face.

"I've been here," Arthur replied, amused. "You just haven't noticed."

Merlin opened his mouth to reply, closed it, turned red, opened it again, then finally settled on, "Let's go find Draco."

Arthur skimmed the crowd for half a second, then said "Found him!" and led Merlin over to where Draco was seated.

Draco lit up when he saw Awstin and started rambling about some spell they were learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Arthur returned Draco's enthusiasm, and they talked about it until the task was about to start. Merlin was completely lost within five minutes due to how different modern magic and the Old Religion were, and he had no idea how  _ Arthur  _ of all people was keeping up.

A whistle blew, and Cedric Diggory appeared from the tent. A gorgeous, blue-green Swedish Short-Snout greeted him from within her enclosure, where he immediately transfigured a rock into a dog. She hissed and snarled at the dog at first, then turned and went after Cedric instead, Bagman narrating how close he was to being killed. He managed to grab the golden egg, but she burnt the side of his face.

After he managed to get out of the enclosure and to Madam Pomfrey, Fleur's whistle was blown. She met her Welsh Green by enchanting her, causing her to fall asleep around the eggs. Fleur carefully tiptoed around and picked up the golden egg, safe until the dragon's snores lit her skirt on fire. She put out the flame with a jet of water from her wand, and made it safely out of the enclosure.

The whistle blew a third time, and Krum came out of the tent, immediately going for his Chinese Fireball's eye with some spell or another that had Merlin on the edge of his seat. Arthur's hand was loosely wrapped around his arm as a reminder to try to stay calm, but Merlin still sent just enough magic to keep the eggs from being crushed when she reeled around in pain. Krum picked up the egg while she trampled around the enclosure in distress, then safely made it back out. Merlin soothed her pain, but she sunk around her eggs, hissing in anger.

When Harry got into the enclosure, the Hungarian Horntail curled protectively around her clutch and thrashing her tail in worry, he yelled, " _ Accio firebolt!" _ and his broom soared through the sky towards him, halting at a level that he could easily mount it. He got on top of it, and flew above the crowd, watching the dragon in trepidation. After a second, he dove, and somehow managed to grab the golden egg and only get struck on the shoulder by her tail. He flew over to the entrance of the enclosure and met with a few of the professors, who directed him over to Madam Pomfrey.

Ron and Hermione dashed towards the tent as soon as they managed to make their way out of the crowd, disappeared inside for about a minute, then came out of it with Harry leading them. Harry got a forty out of fifty, just two points below Krum, who'd only been docked for harming his dragon.

The fact that his score was so high infuriated Merlin, but there was nothing he could do about it (he was definitely going to have Arthur teach about the fall of the Great Dragons when winter came, however). Draco politely clapped for Harry, which was a much better reaction than he'd bothered to give any of the other competitors. Ginny and Luna, on the other hand, were cheering loudly and giving him a standing ovation—not that he noticed.

Merlin stayed in the stands until nearly everybody else was gone so that he could savor what little time he had to spend with Arthur. Draco hung out with them for a bit, but headed up to the castle soon enough after the judges had left. The last that Merlin saw of Harry was him turning away from Rita Skeeter and marching up to the castle with Ron.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly my one friend is in 5 AP classes but he can't be bothered to read the 1300 words i typed up as notes for him on the topic that our teacher forgot to teach us for AP Psych like sir i spent exactly 80 mins on that


	14. in which rita skeeter doesn't manage to take advantage of hagrid's interest in magical creatures to spill the imaginary tea on harry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> last chapter was the first task

Merlin ducked into the Three Broomsticks in an effort to get out of the chill, and almost immediately sighed in relief. He hadn't been able to  _ get away  _ from the Triwizard Tournament since Harry's name had been pulled out of the Goblet of Fire. First he’d been furious about the fact that a  _ child _ had been entered, and then the first event had been around the corner, or students couldn’t stop talking about the dragons.

He ordered a drink and sat down at an empty table, turning his mirror over in his hands. He was ecstatic that Arthur was able to come up to the school during the tasks, but that almost made him miss him even more—they were able to see each other for a day, and then Arthur had to leave and classes resumed.

Madame Rosmerta set his drink down in front of him and he smiled at her in thanks, then huddled back into himself. The door had just swung open to admit more patrons, and a gust of cold wind had swept into the pub.

When he heard Hagrid's voice, he tensed. He'd been on… friendly terms, at the least, over the past three years, but when he'd snapped at Dumbledore, Hagrid had grown quite cold towards him. Merlin understood that—Dumbledore had been the first person to trust him with something, and here Merlin was dissing him for something nobody else even noticed.

Luckily, he hadn't had to talk to Hagrid in quite a bit. He knew from Draco that he was excited about the tournament—wouldn't say why, though, but Merlin assumed now that that had been because of the dragons—but other than that, he hadn't heard much on Hagrid's end.

Then there was another voice, and Merlin nearly spilled his drink in shock—surely Hagrid wasn't  _ purposefully  _ talking to Rita Skeeter?

"So," she said, voice dripping with false interest. "In your class—Care of Magical Beasts—"

"Creatures," Hagrid corrected.

"Yes," she said. "How is Harry as a student?"

"He's good," Hagrid replied, seeming a little surprised. "Now, 'bout the blast-ended skrewts—"

"How long have you known him?"

"Four years," Hagrid replied immediately. "I was the one ter take him ter get his school stuff. They're qui—"

"Never had to tell him off in four years?"

"O' course not," he said.

"Hello, Hagrid." Merlin said, sliding into the seat next to him. "Ms. Skeeter."

"Hello…" she replied.

"Mabon Erwood." He smiled, reaching his hand out to shake hers. "I'm the History of Magic teacher at Hogwarts."

"I see," Rita replied, suddenly looking interested. "How is Harry in your class?"

"Harry who? There are several hundred students in the school, Ms. Skeeter. You'll have to be much more specific."

"Harry Potter, of course," she said, flashing her gold teeth in what appeared to be an attempt at a diplomatic smile.

"Why?"

"Why? Because—I—"

"It's not really anybody's business other than Harry, his guardians, and the teachers how he acts in school."

Rita stood up in a huff, shoving her quill and parchment into her purse and leaving the pub.

"What'd yeh do that for?" Hagrid asked.

"Hagrid, why do you think she was here? To talk about your creatures or spread gossip about Harry?"

"Well, I—" Hagrid broke off.

"If you want to talk about them, I'll listen." Merlin offered. “I’ve never heard of them before, and I’d like to say that I know quite a lot about magical creatures.”

Hagrid hesitated, and then explained what they'd found out about the blast-ended skrewts so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have to get my drivers permit on friday :/


	15. in which harry is reminded that he doesn't have to be romantically attracted to the person he dances with at the ball

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no idea how this fic is so long bc i swear every chapter is like 600 words but there arent that many chapters so??? where did the 20k come from. what.

It was quite funny, really. After the Yule ball had been announced, several girls asked Harry to go with them. He turned down each one, and then started to panic as it got closer and closer to Yule and he didn't have a partner to go with.

Arthur arrived after dinner a few days before the holidays. Merlin hadn't had time to greet him at Hogsmeade Station, but managed to get to the main entrance of the castle in time to get him inside.

Most of the other teachers had given up on teaching at all at that point, as everybody's minds were focused on the ball. Only a few students in third year had been asked, so most of the kids that were in the younger grades were focused on what they were learning.

One of his students—Dennis Creevey, who was from a non-magical family—asked him who he was going with. Merlin just glanced at Arthur, who was standing next to him, in confusion.

"What do you mean, 'Who am I going with?'" Merlin asked. "I'm going with Awstin—was that not obvious?"

He knew that the magical world, at least, typically accepted those who weren't cishet, but the fact that it wasn't obvious to somebody that they were married—even to somebody who had only known magic existed for two years—almost made him laugh.

Several other students raised their hands to ask what they were going to be wearing to the ball—would they match? if so, would they be wearing the same color? same color scheme? complimentary colors? Arthur grinned at their curiosity and replied that his dress robes were red, whereas  _ Professor Erwood's _ were tyrian purple.

Winter break barely created a difference in the amount of students at the school. Merlin spent most of the time hanging out on the shores of the Black Lake talking to Arthur, tutoring students who had fallen behind, and searching for a specific book in the library.

Eventually, Arthur asked him why he was spending so much time in the library—between the two of them, they'd read most of the books there, and Merlin wasn't even borrowing anything.

"It's just—" Merlin sighed. "Do you remember, a few years ago, I told you that I'd found a book in the library, but lost it?"

"... Vaguely?"

"It was mine, back in Camelot. Gaius gave it to me."

"And it's still intact?"

Merlin shook his head softly in laughter. "Yes, you prat. It was my magic book."

"Oh! And it was just sitting in the library? I thought that nobody followed the Old Religion anymore?"

Merlin shrugged. "I guess they thought that there might be something in it that they could learn from and adapt to modern magic, but it isn't even in a language anybody else alive can read, as far as I know."

"Have you tried to summon it?"

Merlin blinked at Arthur and held his hand out. Half a second later, the book was in his hands.

"Did you forget you had magic?"

Merlin ignored him in favor of flipping through the book. "I was  _ going  _ to use this to teach you magic, but I guess you'll just have to stick with the one spell I taught you."

⚡⚡⚡

"If you're having such a hard time finding a date to the ball, you could go with someone as a friend," Merlin suggested when he found Harry wandering the halls as he was on his way to the Great Hall for dinner.

"Yeah, but who would I go with? Everybody already has a partner."

  
"I'm sure not  _ everybody _ has a partner to the dance—some people are just going to go. Is there anybody you were planning on hanging out with after your mandatory dance?”


	16. in which they go to the yule ball

"You look ridiculous," Arthur said, staring at Merlin's dress robes, a small smile on his face.

_ "I _ look ridiculous?" Merlin repeated, staring at his husband in amusement. "Look at yourself. Your tie's crooked."

"Is it?" Arthur asked, moving to stand in front of the mirror. It was.

Merlin made a not-quite-frustrated sigh, then moved in front of him. "I'll fix it."

"It's a shame there isn't anything that I could do to fix your outfit. It's quite atrocious."

Merlin scowled at him, but a smile quickly took over his face. "Is it?" he echoed. "I do believe that  _ you  _ were the one who picked it out."

"Well yes," Arthur replied. "It being the best for you doesn't make it look  _ good." _

Merlin snorted and straightened his long purple robes, then grabbed Arthur's hand and led him out of their room.

They’d gone up to get ready quite a bit earlier than most of the students, and were the first ones who hadn’t been assigned with decorating down to the hall, which was gorgeous. The typically plain stone walls were coated in a fine layer of silver frost that practically glowed in the lantern and starlight. Mistletoe and ivy adorned the ceiling, tangled amongst the stars. Merlin wouldn't have noticed the mistletoe had Arthur not stopped to press a chaste kiss against his cheek every few steps as they made their way up the hall—he was too focused on the hundred or so small tables that were spread throughout the hall in place of the house tables at first.

The two of them sat down at a table with a few other staff members close to the large round table at the top of the hall, bickering quietly in Common Brittonic.

Not even ten minutes later, McGonagall led the champions and their partners down the center of the hall to the table at the top, Harry looking a bit lost whereas Ron—who it appeared Harry had taken as a friend—looked downright giddy. Or, at least, he did until he saw who was with Viktor Krum.  _ Hermione. _

The main table was a clash of colors and emotions—Ludo Bagman had bright purple robes with yellow stars across them, Maxime had a flowing lavender silk gown, Percy Weasley had navy robes on, and Harry had frilly dress robes that looked very different from the sleek dress of everybody else present, and half of the people seated looked enthusiastic while the other half seemed like they were about to murder the whole room—but it was still one of the most magnificent things in the entire hall.

Percy encouraged Harry to sit next to him, and unsuccessfully attempted to pull his attention away from Ron, who lit up when he realized that Harry was still going to talk to him during dinner despite sitting next to Percy.

"What were you thinking of getting?" Arthur asked quietly, staring down at the menus in front of them.

"The  _ soup au pistou _ ?" Merlin replied, frowning down at his menu. "What about you?"

"Kabachkovaya ikra," Arthur replied. "Do you think that sounds any good?"

Merlin hummed his assent, and their food appeared on dishes that were practically pure gold in the lantern light. The food itself had a dazzling presentation, and it tasted even better. It was so good, in fact, that Merlin stole a bite of Arthur's to see whether or not it paled in comparison. That, of course, had Arthur start bickering with him.

"What language is that?" Sybill, who was sitting across from them, inquired. Merlin jumped, suddenly remembering where they were.

“Sorry?” He asked, flushing.

“What language were you speaking? It sounded familiar, but I can’t place it.”

“It’s a Welsh dialect,” Arthur replied, setting his right hand on Merlin’s left arm in a silent message that he had it handled. He wasn’t  _ lying _ , per se, but it wouldn’t do to let anybody know that they were speaking a language that had died out for all but two humans before their precious castle had even been built.

Sybill frowned, but returned to her meal. Merlin forced himself to breathe, and finished up his food, which was no longer as flavourful in his panic.

A few minutes later, Dumbledore asked everybody to step away from their tables, and banished them to the outskirts of the room. A platform rose up along the left wall, and the Weird Sisters climbed onto it and picked up their instruments. They had seen them in concert once when they had just started performing; they’d been quite good then, and talent only increased with age.

Then the champions were led to the dance floor, Ron asking Harry to ‘have this dance’ with him with a flourish. Harry grinned and stood up, then tripped over thin air. Ron caught him, and then the dance began. Towards the end of the dance, other staff and students made their way to the dance floor, so Arthur pulled Merlin with him over to the throng of people.

Nobody danced in the same style; Dumbledore and Maxime were waltzing across the floor, Mad-Eye and Sinistra were doing a two-step, Fred and Angelina were dancing exuberantly in such a way that nobody was within two meters of them, and Arthur and Merlin were doing a dance that had been all but lost to time.

For the most part, everybody was having fun—Karkaroff was off to the side and Ron looked furious whenever they drifted past Krum and Hermione, but Harry quickly cheered him up.

Not too many songs later, the dance floor had been practically cleared—Ron and Harry had run off at some point, no doubt to escape Percy, and the other students—and staff—had slowly filtered out due to exhaustion or simply wanting to escape.

“What are you thinking about?” Arthur asked, sliding his hands around Merlin so that they were closer to hugging than dancing.

Merlin hummed concomitantly. “Not much,” he answered, “I’m just happy that you’re here.”

Arthur pulled Merlin a bit closer so that they were just swaying and holding each other, and Merlin rested his head on Arthur’s chest. They stayed like that until the last song, where they reluctantly pulled apart and walked up to Merlin’s room holding hands.

(He had to leave in the morning, but they were still together for now, and wanted to be with each other as much as possible).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im. so tired. hope you enjoyed :)  
> alSO I FOUND A WAY TO SHOW THAT LUNA IS NB SO 👌👌👌 (not for a few chapters tho) and so far all i have for remus is that it's implied that he's trans. this fic is Officially Done unless i want to revise stuff, and i'll try to add some rep to the next fic when i write it because there is nowhere near enough in here.


	17. in which rita skeeter manages to spill the tea

When Merlin saw the news article, he was outraged.  _ Dumbledore's Giant Mistake. _ How had Rita found out about that? Hagrid certainly wouldn't have  _ told  _ her, would he have? On top of that, it was none of her business—or  _ anybody's _ business.

And, on top of that, "Hagrid used his mysterious influence over the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher, over the heads of many better-qualified candidates". There hadn't _ been  _ many candidates, and Hagrid _ knew what he was doing.  _ Sure, he sometimes invited dangerous creatures to class, but nobody had been seriously injured without going against what Hagrid instructed.

"Brutal nature", Skeeter wrote. Hagrid,  _ brutal? _ He was a tad overprotective of Dumbledore and others he loved, but he'd never  _ actually hurt  _ somebody on purpose.

Thankfully, there weren't any  _ actual  _ incidents reported in the article other than Buckbeak from last year, but Merlin knew how biased the wizards—humans in general, really—were.

Hagrid wasn't in the Great Hall for breakfast, lunch,  _ or  _ dinner, so Merlin knew that word of it must have reached him somehow. He had just stood up to leave the hall and check on Hagrid when Draco caught his attention.

"Do you think that Hagrid's okay?" He asked. "He wasn't there during class today, and I haven't seen him all day. Coupled with that article, something  _ really  _ bad may have happened."

"I'm not sure," Merlin frowned. "I was about to go down to check on him, so you can come with me."

When they got to the hut, Merlin knocked on the door, then held his ear to it to see if anybody was getting up. When he heard nothing—besides Fang's barking and whining, that is—his heart plummeted.

"Hagrid?" Merlin asked. "It's me. Draco's here, too. Are you okay?" Fang stopped barking for half a second and started sniffling at the door, but Hagrid made no response. Merlin moved around the hut to check in the windows to see if any lights were on, but the windows were all drawn.

"Come to gloat?" Harry's voice sounded off from behind them, and he was glaring at Draco.

"Whatever would I  _ gloat  _ for?" He demanded, glancing between Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

“I don’t know, maybe that your least favorite teacher is going to be ridiculed, that somehow, somebody found out something  _ extremely personal _ and told the entire wizarding world?” Hermione snapped, meeting Draco’s gaze.

Merlin glanced at Draco from around the side of the hut, a silent  _ Do you want me to help? _ passed between them in a glance. Draco shook his head imperceptibly, and turned back to face the trio.

“I haven’t come to  _ gloat _ , as you so put it, because I have nothing to gloat about.” Draco replied.

Ron snorted. “Sure you don’t.”

“I’m not sure where you’ve been the last few years,” Draco replied, tense, “But I quite like Hagrid, and, again, have nothing to gloat about. Find somebody else to—” Draco cut off, glancing at Merlin with a slight blush across his face. “Maybe try to read the situation before you judge somebody, or use context clues and realize that people can be different from who they were when they were  _ eleven.” _

"I don't think he's going to open the door," Merlin said softly into the shocked silence. Draco glanced at him, then marched off in the direction of the castle. Harry, Ron, and Hermione whirled around to face him.

"Are you sure?"

Merlin's lips thinned into a narrow line. "As far as I can tell, he's not going to answer for anybody. You can try, though. Just don't stay out here past dusk."

⚡⚡⚡

When Merlin got to the Three Broomsticks, Ludo Bagman was seated in a dark corner talking quietly with several goblins. Merlin sat down at the bar, where he could see Bagman in the mirror. He ordered a butterbeer and watched him, hardly even noticing the man beside him trying (and failing) to pickpocket him (when he did realize he was being robbed, he barely reacted—he only had a handful of sickles on him, and if somebody was resorting to stealing in a world where they could go to  _ Azkaban, _ they probably needed the money).

The door swung open, admitting Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They skimmed the pub, as though looking for somebody. After a quick glance around, they frowned and ordered their drinks. When they sat down, Bagman noticed Harry and rushed over.

He pulled him to a corner of the pub, and Merlin slid from his seat to follow them. He slid into a conveniently empty table next to them, and heard Bagman offer Harry help deciphering the golden egg. Harry declined, and the twins appeared out of nowhere and attempted to whisk Bagman away—he just came up with some excuse and shuffled out of the bar, though.

Merlin slid his gaze over to the table where Harry had just sat down, next to Ron and Hermione. Behind them, the door swung open. Merlin set down his now-empty glass and stood up to leave, then saw who had entered—Rita Skeeter was leading her photographer through the bar, talking very fast and appearing not too different from a cat who had just caught a bird.

Fire soared through his veins, and he stood up.

"Trying to ruin someone else's life?" Harry burst out, black hair standing up on end.

Merlin was halfway across the pub before she had even recognized Harry. It felt as though anger was pulsating off of him.

"You should head back to the castle," he suggested to the trio, voice tense. Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Merlin looked at him and shook his head. "It's not worth it."

Hermione nodded briskly, then pulled Harry and Ron to their feet and stormed out of the door. Merlin moved to follow them, then decided to stop by Rita Skeeter.

"None of that was any of your—or anybody else's—business. You don't have any proof behind the majority of your statements, and what is truthful is exaggerated. I highly suggest that you stop feeding people lies sooner rather than later."

She smiled widely at him, her golden teeth glinting in the light. "I don't suppose you'd like to talk about this?"

"I wouldn't." Merlin replied, and left the pub in a state of silence. He didn't care if she wrote a nasty article about him—it would follow him for a day, a month, a year, and then disappear forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbh forgot abt this yeet—  
> in other news, I've started on the next fic. by which i mean I've read one (1) chapter of ootp


	18. in which harry sneaks around the castle at night and suspicions are high

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'ALL IM SO SORRY I FORGOT TO POST ON WEDNESDAY BECAUSE WATERPARKS DROPPED 8 DEMOS SO I WAS BUSY LISTENING TO THEM.

Merlin froze. It smelled like someone had doused themself in every possible perfume, and then decided to add lotion on top of that. Whoever it was stopped walking as well, their footsteps as they skidded to a stop echoing softly. Merlin pulled the Marauders' Map—which he'd managed to magic into showing his name as whatever the person who was reading it knew him as—out of his pocket.

_ Harry Potter, _ the tiny dot next to him said.

"Harry," Merlin sighed, "What are you doing?"

"Er," Harry said, not taking the invisibility cloak off. "I was just—"

"Please just go back to bed. You  _ know  _ you're not supposed to be up."

"Er," Harry replied. Merlin glanced at him, unimpressed.

"Er…?" he prompted.

"Well, you see—I'msortofstuckinatrickstair."

Merlin sighed. "Of course you are." He walked over and helped Harry free himself, then froze. In the struggle, Harry had dropped his golden egg—although Merlin wasn't sure why he had it with him—and somebody was speeding over to them.

"Take that off and stay still," Merlin hissed, pressing himself into the shadows of the wall and waving a hand so that Harry was truly invisible. There was no need to turn himself invisible, as he was allowed to walk around the castle at these hours and may need to speak with whoever's footsteps echoed loudly across the stone floor.

"Take it off—?" Harry questioned, but did regardless of his confusion. Merlin made the invisibility cloak invisible, too, and focused on who was walking over.

_ "PEEVES!"  _ Filch's voice rang out from just around the corner of the base of the stairs.

So not Mad-Eye, then. Still, better safe than sorry.

Snape marched onto the stairwell in a long gray nightshirt, livid. "Filch? What's going on?"

"It's Peeves, Professor." Filch replied excitedly. "He threw this egg down the stairs."

"Peeves? But Peeves couldn't get into my office..." Snape said, staring at the egg in a mixture of confusion and fascination.

"This egg was in your office, Professor?" Filch asked, looking disgruntled.

"Of course not," Snape snapped, and started bickering with Filch.

_ Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. _

Mad-Eye Moody limped into sight at the bottom of the stairs and gazed up at them. His eyes scanned over both Harry and Merlin, but made no reaction that acknowledged them.

"Pajama party, is it?" He snarled, glaring up at them.

Filch immediately started explaining that Peeves had been up to trouble, while Snape rushed to shut him up for some reason.

"Did I hear that correctly, Snape?" Moody asked, turning his blue eye to face him. "Someone broke into your office?"

"It's unimportant," Snape said coldly, glaring down at Moody.

Then they started arguing, and Merlin had to tune them out lest he go mad. He presses himself closer to the wall and finally let his spell turn him invisible as well; it wouldn't do well to be caught eavesdropping on this particular conversation. He was about to sneak down the stairs to grab Harry's egg when Filch turned away and picked it up, then headed off. Merlin resisted the urge to swear, and pressed himself up against the wall again so that nobody would bump into him.

Snape stormed off in a different direction, and Moody watched him leave, then pulled a cluster of things out of his pocket as if to check that they were in decent condition still. There was some sort of powder, lacewing flies, leeches, and a couple different plants.

Then he, too, left, narrowly missing Harry as he climbed up the stairs off-kilter.

"Professor?" Harry whispered once the two of them were alone and Merlin had removed his spell. "Those things that Professor Moody had—they looked like polyjuice potion ingredients. Why would he need those?"

"I'm not sure, but it can't be any good if he stole them. I'm going to try to get your egg back from Filch; try to go to bed, please."

Harry nodded jerkily, then pulled his cloak back on top of himself and disappeared into the dark castle. Merlin waited half a second to make sure that his footsteps were leading away, then crept down the stairs to Filch's office, checking the map to make sure he wouldn't run into anybody.  _ Severus Snape _ was several corridors away;  _ Harry Potter  _ was nearly back at Gryffindor Tower;  _ Argus Filch _ was in his office;  _ Bartimus Crouch _ was headed away from him across the castle. Merlin froze and stared at it in confusion; he'd been too ill to show up to any of the Triwizard Tournament related events so far, but he was sneaking around the castle at night?

Filch moved towards the door of his office, and Merlin ran the rest of the way as quietly as he could. When he got there, Filch was just leaving. He snuck past him, and managed to get inside the office just before the door closed. He sighed in relief, then froze as he heard keys turn. Well, he was screwed.

Merlin swept across the room, scanning it for the egg—surely it couldn't be  _ too  _ hard to find? 

It was.

It wasn't loose anywhere, and he'd gone through almost all of the drawers in the office before he found it. He glanced at his watch, which read 3am. He picked up the egg and nearly dropped it in shock when he saw what was underneath it—his book.

He picked it up and gently put it in his robe pocket, then turned to face the door. Which was still locked. Merlin sighed, then pulled out his mirror to see if Arthur was awake.

The golden glow was replaced by Arthur's sleepy face within seconds. " _ Mer _ lin, what are you doing? It's the middle of the night!"

"I know that, you clotpole." Merlin replied. "It's just—well—"

Arthur sighed. "What mess have you gotten yourself into this time?"

"It's really not my fault—Harry was sneaking around the school—and he dropped his egg—and Filch found it—so now I'm in  _ his  _ office to get it back, and I found my book."

"And this couldn't have waited until morning because…?"

"Well, I—er—Filch locked the door behind him."

Arthur rubbed his eyes sleepily and looked at Merlin in confusion. "Are you or are you not the most powerful magic-user alive?"

"Yes, but I don't want to make a lot of noise by knocking the door off its—"

"I was suggesting you either  _ unlock it _ or teleport to your room, but sure, destroy the castle."

Merlin's mouth formed a small O shape, and the next second, he was in his room.

"Sorry for waking you up."

Arthur mumbled in reply—something that could've been  _ "It's fine"  _ or  _ "I hate you"— _ Merlin wasn't sure, since Arthur's pillow was shoved in his face. "G'night."

"Night, love you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really hope this was the chapter that i meant to post lol. probably is but you never know. ALSO i am so very slow at writing dear lord I've written half a scene of the next fic and the majority of it is dialogue taken from the book


	19. in which they watch the second task

"Okay, so," Merlin began, opening his book. "I've got it!"

"Yes," Arthur replied, amused. "You told me this morning.  _ At three am." _

"Yes, but—" Merlin broke off, flushing. "I guess that means that you don't want to try to learn any magic?"

"I didn't say  _ that," _ Arthur protested, sitting up straighter on their bed.

"Well…" Merlin shrugged, setting the mirror back on his desk.

"I  _ didn't." _

"Whatever you say,  _ sire."  _ Merlin replied, thumbing through the book carefully.

Over the past eleven years, he'd tried to teach Arthur spells that he remembered, and only partially succeeded. Unless they were spells that Merlin had invented—like the one for teleportation—he had difficulty with them, and could only do verbal spells. Now that he had the book back, however, he should be able to teach Arthur more.

⚡⚡⚡

Merlin honestly didn't see the point of having a crowd for the second task. It wasn't like they could see into the Black Lake, or hear what was happening. And it was cold.

He shivered and pressed closer to Arthur, who seemed completely unbothered by the cold other than the fact that his skin was tinged purple. Still, he let Merlin take his hand.

It was quite a bit before there was any action in the lake, but it there was still a while to go before the one hour mark. Fleur Delacour had been attacked by grindylows and unable to fight them off, and could not finish competing in the task.

By the time one hour had passed, Fleur was the only one who had surfaced. A minute later, Cedric pushed himself out of the water, Cho at his side. A little bit later, Krum surfaced with Hermione. Harry was nowhere in sight.

The tensions of the crowd increased with every second until three heads broke the surface of the lake.

Harry and Ron started swimming for the shore, helping a little girl that Merlin assumed had some relation to Fleur. When they got back to where everybody was, Fleur rushed over to them, but Merlin could neither see nor hear what she said to them through the crowd.

Hermione broke away from Krum and Madam Pomfrey. He moved to follow her, but it seemed as though she didn't even notice him. So far, Hermione had been the only one to care about Krum as a  _ person,  _ not a celebrity, and she couldn't even see him when he was standing next to her best friends. It sort of broke Merlin's heart to see how heartbroken Krum looked—a girl he had just met a few months ago was the person who meant the most to him.

A familiar screech-like noise started out, and Merlin tracked it to its source—the Merchieftaness, Murcus. She was telling Dumbledore about what had happened at the bottom of the lake—Harry had tried to help all four "hostages" to freedom.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Ludo Bagman's voice broke out. "We have reached our final decision. Merchieftaness Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out it fifty for each of the champions, as follows… Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage."

"I deserved a zero," Fleur sobbed, hugging the little girl closer to herself, voice broken. Ludo Bagman ignored her in favor of continuing to give out points.

"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour. We therefore award him forty-seven points. Viktor Krum used an incomplete form or transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."

Merlin glanced at the judges, where Karkaroff looked as if he had personally won the task.

"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect. He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftaness informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own. Most of the judges feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However… Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

The majority of the crowd broke out into cheers, but the Durmstrang students—and Karkaroff, especially—seemed furious. Bagman looked upset, too, but Merlin assumed that it was due to the fact that Harry hadn't gotten the full fifty points.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw you finished this fic like 3 weeks ago and only have half a scene written for the next one?


	20. in which rita skeeter spreads gossip (again)

For quite a while after the task, Ron got a ton of attention—students came up to hear him regal them with stories of how he'd been kidnapped by merpeople, been beaten into submission, and tied up. As long as it didn't interrupt his class, Merlin didn't care very much—the stories weren't hurting anybody, and Ron seemed happy.

As the weather got harsher, school spirits seemed to die back down. Owls were blown off course and took ages longer to get to their destinations—so much so that Merlin had to double check that Morgana was in their house and not flying around in the harsh winds.

"I'm keeping her inside," Arthur promised. "I was going to wait until the weather got better to send you this, but it doesn't look like it's going to clear up, does it?"

Merlin glanced out of the window that was almost opaque with frost and shook his head. "Wait—send me what?"

Arthur sighed and held up a magazine—Witch Weekly. " _ Harry Potter's Secret Heartache."  _

Merlin blinked. "His  _ what?  _ He's only a fourth year; why are people so invested in his love life?"

Arthur nodded. "Want to guess who wrote it?"

"What do y— _ she  _ wrote it? I thought she wrote for The Daily Prophet?"

"Apparently she also writes for this. I'm not going to read the whole thing because it's ridiculous, but if she, Krum, or Harry are upset, that's probably why—and it has some personal information that she  _ definitely  _ shouldn't have access to."

"Like what?" Merlin asked, frowning.

"Well—Krum invited her to come visit him in Bulgaria over the summer, and she included a snippet of that conversation."

Merlin's face hardened. "I see." If Rita Skeeter didn't stop pushing into people's private business soon, she wasn't going to enjoy their next interaction.

Thankfully, Hermione didn't seem upset by the article—she'd definitely heard about it, considering how much Pansy had brought it up around her—and Harry just seemed embarrassed from the attention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> probably gonna add another chapter tonight since this is like Five Words


	21. in which a few things would fall into place if merlin had more than two brain cells

Merlin was just about to go up to his chambers for the night when he saw Harry walking out of the castle with Cedric Diggory. He spelled himself invisible, then crept out behind them.

They made their way down to the quidditch pitch, completely unaware that they were being followed. What were they planning on doing? It wasn't like either of them had their brooms—were they planning on training together for the last task? And if so, why had they chosen to practice  _ here  _ of all places?

Merlin turned around a gap in between the stands, and everything clicked into place. Fleur Delacour, Victor Krum, and Ludo Bagman were standing in the field—only, it wasn't _ quite  _ a field anymore. 

Just when Merlin decided that Harry was perfectly fine on his own, Krum pulled him aside. Harry nodded, and the two of them walked to the edge of the forest.

Krum asked Harry if he had anything going on with Hermione.

_ Romantically?  _ Merlin thought.  _ They're so far from dating it isn't even funny. _ Harry hadn't shown interest in anybody, except maybe Cho Chang.

Harry had to assure him several times that they were friends, not dating, and Krum complimented his flying in the first task. Harry said something about Krum at the World Cup, then cut off.

"Vot is it?" Krum asked when Harry grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to him, staring at the trees behind where Krum had been standing.

A man—Barty Crouch, Merlin realized—stumbled out from the woods, mumbling nonsense to himself. He was bloody and scraped up, face unshaved and clothes torn.

Harry tried to talk to him to no avail, and promised to take him to Dumbledore. Merlin let his spell fall and krept back a few meters, and pretended to stumble across Harry when he sprinted out of the woods.

"Professor! Please, help, it's Barty Crouch."

"From the Ministry?" Merlin asked, letting Harry lead him back to the edge of the forest.

"You are a teacher?" Krum asked studying Merlin in distrust.

He nodded, then kneeled in front of Crouch. He didn't seem to see Merlin even though they were right in front of each other, so Merlin stood up.

"I'm going to carry him up to the hospital wing. I want you to try to find Dumbledore, Harry, and you to go back to your ship, Krum.

"I vant to help," he protested as Merlin waved his faux wand at Crouch and made him levitate so that he'd be easier to move.

"It's best if you go back to your ship. Who knows what Crouch has been doing, or what his plans are? Your headmaster will be upset if something happens, and I'm not in the mood for a war between ministries."

"Fine," Krum agreed, marching off to his ship. Harry ran towards the castle, hopefully to find Dumbledore. Merlin speed walked behind him, but only made it to the door before he ran into somebody.

"What's happened?" Moody asked, limping towards him. "Potter said something about Crouch."

"We're not sure," Merlin said, not slowing down. "It'd probably be best if you retired for the night—we're not sure who or what did this to him, and it's best to have as few people wandering around as possible."

Moody opened his mouth, but Merlin spoke over him.

"Even a wizard trained to fight against the dark arts can be taken by surprise."

"I'll live," Moody growled, following him to the hospital wing.

Merlin frowned, but let Moody follow him. When they got there, Madam Pomfrey rushed over.

"What happened?"

"We're not sure—Harry and Krum stumbled upon him, and he was just mumbling and making no sense. He didn't seem to realize that we were  _ there _ , just that there were people."

Merlin moved him to a bed, and told Madam Pomfrey that he was going to search for Dumbledore.

He ducked into the corridor and magicked the Marauders' Map to his hand, quickly skimming it for Dumbledore's name. When he found it, he was walking next to Harry in the direction of the hospital wing.

Merlin moved to meet them halfway when he glanced over the map again, and saw the inside of the hospital wing. It said  _ Poppy Pomfrey  _ and  _ Bartimus Crouch,  _ but it also said  _ Bartimus Crouch  _ a small distance away, where Moody had been standing. Merlin glanced at the door, then back at the map again. There were only two names.

⚡⚡⚡

_ Remus Lupin, _

_ Are you certain that your map is entirely correct? I was looking at it and it repeated a name. There were that many people in the room, but one of the names was replaced by that of another in the room. It's unlikely that this is the case, but if somebody changed their name, would it show up as that or their original name? The likelihood that they were born with the same name is low, but I do not currently see any other possibilities. _

_ -M. E. _

_ [received] _

_ M. E., _

_ It has never been wrong before. It shows the name each person calls themself, regardless of whether it's their legal name or not. Just as it would show Dumbledore's name, it shows my name, and Harry's name, etc. Whose name was it? Is it possible that it was somebody who has a child named after them? _

_ -Remus Lupin _

_ [intercepted] _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are like. six more chapters. which means three weeks. I've written exactly one scene of the next fic. s t r e s s


	22. in which a few more things would fall into place if merlin had more than two brain cells

Merlin stared at the Crystal of Neahtid in apprehension. It held the secret of time itself, so perhaps it could show him what had happened to Crouch. Sure, it was unpredictable, but it was worth the risk. He reached out and picked it up, and was thrown into a vision.

He was in a courtroom of some sort, surrounded by wizards that were all staring at the door in the far corner of the room. A sudden dry sob broke out, and Merlin focused on a frail looking witch. She was downright trembling, holding a handkerchief to her face.

Next to her was the person he was looking for—Bartimus Crouch, albeit several years younger.

"Bring them in," he said, voice echoing around the cavernous dungeon.

The frail witch started sobbing even harder as the door opened and dementors brought four people in chains into the room and forced them to sit in chairs that wrapped more chains around their arms in a vise.

"You have been brought here," Crouch said, standing up, "Before the Council of Magical Law so that we may pass judgement on you, for a crime so heinous—"

"Father," the youngest of the four said, nearly petrified. "Father… please…"

Crouch's face hardened and he continued, "—that we have rarely heard the like of it within this court. We have heard the evidence against you. The four of you stand accused of capturing an Auror—Frank Longbottom—and subjecting him to the Cruciatus Curse, believing him to have knowledge if the present whereabouts of your exiled master, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named—"

"Father, I didn't!" The boy shrieked, trying and failing to stand up from the chained chair. "I didn't, I swear it, Father, don't send me back to the dementors—"

Crouch's face contorted in hatred as he continued to list the charges against his son and his friends. "You are further accused of using the Cruciatus Curse on Frank Longbottom's wife when he would not give you information. You planned to restore He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to power, and to resume the lives of violence you presumably led when he was strong. I now ask the jury—"

"Mother!" the boy screamed, causing the frail witch to dissolve into sobs yet again. "Mother, stop him, Mother, I didn't do it, it wasn't me!"

"I now ask the jury to raise their hands if they believe, as I do, that these crimes deserve a life sentence in Azkaban!"

The jury raised their hands in unison, not a single person staying still.

The boy began to scream, and Merlin nearly forced himself from the vision.

"The Dark Lord will rise again, Crouch!" the woman with thick bushy hair called, meeting Crouch's eyes. "Throw us in Azkaban; we will wait! He will rise again and will come for us, he will reward us beyond any of his other supporters! We alone were faithful! We aline tried to find him!"

The dementors began to pull the four prisoners to the door, the boy fighting them as he was dragged away.

"I'm your son!" he screamed up at Crouch, face a mixture of fury and terror. "I'm your son!"

"You are no son of mine," Crouch bellowed.  _ "I have no son!" _

With that, Merlin pulled his hand off of the crystal, breathing heavily. What did his son have to do with this? What had Crouch done?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so like... when i see my kudos count it's like Okay, random numbers. but then i clicked on it and oh my god there are so many USERNAMES and the ppl who don't comment are ACTUAL HUMANS thank you all SO MUCH for keeping up with this series I'm so soft.
> 
> also sorry this chapter's a tad short xx


	23. in which the third tasks begins

Merlin stared at the paper that Arthur had sent him.

**Harry Potter**

**"Disturbed and Dangerous"**

The boy who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is unstable and possibly dangerous,  _ writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent.  _ Alarming evidence has recently come to light about Harry Potter's strange behaviour, which casts doubts upon his suitability to compete in a demanding competition like the Triwizard Tournament, or even to attend Hogwarts School.

Potter, the  _ Daily Prophet  _ can exclusively reveal, regularly collapses at school, and is often heard to complain of pain in the scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him). On Monday last, midway through a Divination lesson, your  _ Daily Prophet  _ reporter witnessed Potter storming from the class, claiming that his scar was hurting too badly to continue studying.

The article continued to drag Harry's name through the dirt, mentioning how it was possibly a plea for attention—as if Harry even wanted any more attention. He literally deflected attention from himself to Ron all the time, and had spent forever trying to find a date to the Yule Ball because the only people who had asked him had asked because he was the boy who lived.

It was also mentioned how he could have brain damage from the curse—as if that was anybody's business—and how he'd always been a little on the dangerous side—between him speaking Parseltongue and befriending Hagrid, Harry was quite obviously a scary guy.

Merlin quite honestly had no idea how Rita Skeeter had lived so long.

⚡⚡⚡

Merlin was only mildly surprised to not see Harry come to class. After all, it was the day of the third and final task, and he was excused from the exams taking place that day.

When the third years came in, none of them could focus on his lesson, so he decided to let them quietly goof around, or ask about topics that weren't necessarily in the curriculum. It took him a minute to realize that Luna wasn't there yet.

"Does anybody know where Luna is?" He asked, skimming over the classroom again to make sure that he hadn't missed her.

"They were in the library, last I checked." Ginny said. "They should be here soon."

Merlin paused when he noticed her phrasing, then nodded. "As long as they don't take too long, it should be fine. If they're not here in five minutes, would you mind checking on them for me?"

"Sure," Ginny smiled, turning back to her book—probably something about quidditch.

Merlin stared at the book for a second, then sighed. It wasn't like the rest of the class was paying attention, but he'd hoped to have at least Ginny participate in class.

Merlin sat down at his desk and picked up some papers he had to grade, but didn't get any work done. It was hard enough to grade when he was alone in his office, but with children chattering?

"Professor, they're here." Ginny said, her book nowhere in sight.

"Ah! Luna! Everybody's distracted about the Triwizard Tournament, so I'm having a bit of a free class. If you have any questions about any topic—historical or not—feel free to ask them. I'll try my best to answer."

Luna nodded, asked, "Professor, what's the difference between modern magic and the Old Religion?"

"Well," Merlin said, wondering how to answer this when the two were so different. "The Old Religion relied on  _ balance. _ Think of it like potions—sure, the potion ought to work if you follow the instructions to a T, but most potions will work  _ better  _ if you add an extra stir, or let it simmer for half a second longer, or add a tiny bit of crushed mandrake leaf. Transfiguration was nearly impossible for even the best—where was the life coming from? Did somebody have to die to bring the statue to life?"

"How could you tell if somebody was using magic of the Old Religion or modern magic?" Luna asked, voice clear despite the chaos of the room.

Merlin froze. "Well, there aren't many specific differences—both typically require verbal spells, modern magic doesn't technically  _ need  _ a wand, both deal with potions."

"You said there aren't many," Luna said once he'd stopped talking. "What are they?"

"Well, the Old Religion's spells are actual words in a language, whereas modern magic uses words derived  _ from  _ latin, but aren't technically part of a language themselves. And, of course, the fact that the user of the Old Religion's eyes glow golden when they perform magic."

⚡⚡⚡

He'd been eager to watch the last task, but when Merlin heard Fleur's blood-curdling shriek, he knew something was wrong. Her voice had hit an edge he hadn't heard in over a thousand years—the scream of somebody who wasn't yet dead, but was in so much pain they might as well be. Based off of what he knew of Fleur, almost nothing in that maze could have beaten her so easily.

Arthur met his gaze and nodded once, showing understanding, and Merlin vanished into thin air. He reappeared, invisible, next to Fleur, who was shaking in pain, unable to reach her wand.

"Qui—who's there?" She asked, voice broken.

"What happened?" Merlin asked, kneeling down and handing her wand to her.

"It—It was Krum." She said, tears streaming out of eyes that held nearly no emotion. Her voice shook almost as badly as she did, and her accent was so thick that Merlin could barely understand her.

"What did he do?"

"He—he used the Cruciatus Curse on me. I ran into him and he barely seemed to recognize me, and then everything hurt and he was standing above me."

Merlin was nearly speechless. "I'm going to find him, will you be alright?"

She nodded jerkily, and pressed herself against the hedge for support. "I will be fine."

With the aid of magic, Merlin found Krum within seconds—and just in time, too, based off of the sounds coming from around the edge of the maze.

He wasn't moving at all—it was almost like he'd been frozen solid. Then Merlin stepped on a loose branch from the hedge, and Krum's hand slid smoothly to his wand.

Merlin moved a rock on the other side of the passageway, and Krum struck out at it with a fiery red light.  _ The Cruciatus Curse. _ He made no other acknowledgement of the disturbance, and returned back to his previous standing position.

_ What was he doing?  _ They weren't supposed to attack the other contestants, and that spell was highly illegal. 

Then everything clicked into place, and Merlin sent a thread of magic towards Krum, loosening him from the Imperious Curse he'd been placed under.

Krum immediately came back to himself, and nearly flung his wand away in horror. He sank to the ground, paying no heed to the mud under his feet.

Cedric turned the corner and immediately saw Krum sitting there, staring at his hands in horror.

"Are you okay?"

Krum's gaze slid over to Cedric, and he nodded, but made no other movement to acknowledge his presence. After waiting half a second, Cedric turned around another corner and disappeared into the depths of the maze yet again.

⚡⚡⚡

Watching Harry grapple with the spider was terrifying—he knew he wasn't supposed to meddle with the results of the tournament, but there was nothing telling him he  _ couldn't,  _ and he couldn't watch Harry get eaten alive.

So he forced the spider to stand down, forcing the command into their mind until they let him go and scuttled back into the maze. Cedric rushed over to Harry and helped him up, then gestured towards the cup.

Despite the golden glow being emitted from it, it felt awful to just  _ be near  _ the cup. Harry and Cedric were too busy arguing to even notice it, and that stunned Merlin more than the fact that they were arguing in the first place—it was a  _ competition _ , why were they insisting that the other won?

Then they both reached out to grab the cup, and Merlin couldn't say  _ Wait!  _ fast enough. He reached out to grab the rim of the cup, and the three of them were transported to somewhere  _ much  _ darker than the maze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wthhhh it's almost over that's wild  
> also i rly don't want to do my ap gov hw help :/


	24. in which moldy voldy is >:(

Harry fell to the ground while Merlin and Cedric remained standing. Merlin let the Triwizard Cup fall from his hands as soon as he could, praying that Cedric didn't notice the weight change; as far as he could tell, Cedric dropping the cup was just a coincidence.

They were in a graveyard. He almost didn't recognize that at first—it was completely overgrown and appeared to have been abandoned roughly fifty years ago; the darkness of the sky didn't help either.

"Did anyone tell _you_ the cup was a portkey?" Cedric asked, glancing down at Harry.

"Nope," Harry replied, glancing around nervously. "Is this supposed to be part of the task?"

"I dunno; wands out, d'you reckon?"

They pulled out their wands, and Merlin's eyes focused on something moving towards them.

"Someone's coming," Harry said, staring in the same direction.

They were short and wearing a hooded cloak, but something about their overall stature seemed familiar to Merlin. They stopped moving beside a marble tombstone only six feet away, and Merlin realized what was familiar about them half a second too late—Harry collapsed to the ground, clutching his scar in pain, and a voice—not Wormtail, someone else coming from his location—hissed, _"Kill the spare."_

Merlin sent up a crackling golden shield and nearly fell to his knees when a bright green light struck it where Cedric was standing. Whatever spell it was took almost all of his energy to fight off, and his invisibility spell shattered.

Wormtail turned towards him, and Merlin made the split second decision to break the shield and send Cedric back to the maze; Harry was too far away and he didn't want to risk sending multiple people possibly hundreds of miles without direct contact, but he didn't want to leave Harry alone, either.

It was only after Cedric was gone—hopefully back at Hogwarts, but anywhere was safer than here—that Merlin let himself fall to his knees, exhausted from using so much magic at once.

_"Avada Kedavra!"_ Wormtail yelled, aiming at Merlin's heart. The dazzling green light zipped towards him, and then everything was black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT TOOK ME TWO MINUTES TO FIGURE OUT THAT THE REASON I COULDN'T ADD A CHAPTER WAS BECAUSE I WASN'T LOGGED IN I'M SUCH A FOOL SOMETIMES.
> 
> anyway important info: i only have abt 3k written for the next fic and i'm super busy this weekend between driver's ed and my grandparents. this means that there will most likely be a hiatus between this fic and the next one. i am NOT abandoning this series, i'm just v slow at writing and reading lately.
> 
> also: my mom thinks i haven't read since 7th grade bc i didn't know how to explain ff to her but APPARENTLY she knows what it is. not sure if i'll tell her that my life doesn't revolve around instagram or not.
> 
> thank you all so much for all of your comments and kudos and bookmarks and support on this series it means the world to me. y'all literally make my day.
> 
> EDIT: if y'all are fast you got to see the next chapter too oops


	25. in which merlin is done with voldy's antics

Merlin's mouth tasted like blood. He had a splitting headache, and a bloody nose as well. He wiped at his face and his hand came away dripping scarlet.

He forced himself to his feet, nearly falling back over when a wave of vertigo crashed over him. Dark magic threatened to drag him back to the ground, but he pushed it back, finally seeing its source—a tall, lithe, robed figure facing Harry Potter, who was tied to a gravestone, a gash in his arm.

His footsteps were eerily loud in the abandoned cemetery, but none of the figures turned to face him.

"Listen to me, reliving my family history…" The newest figure said, their voice high and reedy. "Why, I am growing quite sentimental… But look, Harry! My  _ true  _ family returns…"

Hooded figures in masks swished into existence, as if they were ants finding the holes in a picnic basket, then they stepped forwards cautiously, as though they could not believe their eyes. One by one, the figures fell to their knees and kissed the hem of the figure's robes, whispering, "Master… master…"

Surely, it couldn't be…?

"Welcome, Death Eaters," he said softly after they'd arranged themselves in a circle. "Thirteen years… thirteen years since we last met. Yet you answer my call as though it were yesterday… We are still united under the Dark Mark, then!  _ Or are we?" _

It was him.

"I smell guilt," he said. "There is a stench of guilt upon the air."

Nearly everybody in the circle seemed to petrify, as if trying not to flee in fear.

"I see you all, whole and healthy, with your powers intact—such prompt appearances!—and I ask myself… why did this band of wizards never come to the aid of their master, to whom they swore eternal loyalty?"

"Probably because you lost part of your soul in an attempt to murder a baby," Merlin said, pulling the magic from the air into his grasp.

Voldemort spun around to face him. "You were dead."

"So were you; it's not the first time that spell has failed."

He raised his wand and pointed it at Merlin, but he was prepared this time. When he said,  _ "Avada Kedavra",  _ Merlin just let himself  _ absorb  _ the energy being sent at him, turning it into a glistening golden than collected in his hands.

Voldemort took half a step back, dozens of emotions crossing over his face before he could school it back to a neutral. The Death Eaters made no move to join the fight other than raising their wands in case they were needed.

Merlin let the magic file into a whip-like strand in one of his hands and wiped at his nose, which hadn't stopped bleeding, with the other. Instead of scarlet, he was covered in a brilliant molten gold.

"You have three options," Merlin said. "The first: you come back to us without putting up a fight, and accept your legal punishment without argument. The second: you keep fighting me. I could easily kill you, if I wanted to, but I'd rather not; I already have a headache and there are millions of magic users who wish to see you come to justice."

"And the third?" Voldemort asked, raising his wand to level Merlin yet again.

"You leave, and don't come back to bother him again. If I so much as hear that he has a  _ bad dream  _ about you, I will find you and drain the  _ life  _ out of you."

"As if I'd do any of those when I'm so close to being the greatest sorcerer alive."

"Yes, because killing a teenager who splintered your already fractured soul as a baby is going to make you, a  _ wizard,  _ the greatest sorcerer alive."

Voldemort snarled at him, keeping his wand level.

"If you don't choose one of the three, I'm going with the second option. You have five seconds."

"You can't _ threaten _ me," Voldemort snarled, raising his wand.

"Can't I?" Merlin asked, despite knowing that whatever he did wouldn't work—he could feel how fragmented Voldemort's soul was, and just destroying this one part of it would do nothing in the long run. "Five. Four. Three—"

Voldemort all but hissed, then disapparated. His Death Eaters followed his example after a second of what appeared to be shock. Wormtail was the first of all of them to go, dropping all that he had been holding in his panic.

Merlin let the magic collected around him dissipate, then rushed over to Harry and severed the bonds tying him to the gravestone.

"What are you doing here? I don't—"

"Fleur screamed; Krum had performed the Cruciatus Curse on her; he was under the influence of the Imperius Curse. I figured that somebody was trying to skew the results of the tournament one way or another,  _ and  _ it's only obvious that somebody tried very hard to get you  _ into  _ the tournament in the first place."

"How are you alive? I saw the spell hit you—you were  _ dead. _ "

"I want you to grab the cup and get back to the castle. I'll be there as soon as I can; don't tell anybody I was here."

Harry hesitated, then ran over and grabbed the cup.

Merlin skimmed the graveyard, then picked through the pile of stuff Wormtail had dropped to see if there was anything important—there was a wand, but that was basically it. He picked it up, figuring that it was probably Harry's—if he'd had his wand, he probably would have tried to  _ expelliarmus  _ his way out of the situation.

A second later, he was standing next to Arthur, watching the Weasleys and Hermione rush over to Harry and hug him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are only two more chapters 😭😭😭 I'm not rEADY for it to be over :(((((
> 
> theyre also quite small so oops but i can't wait to see what y'all think of them :)


	26. in which some more people are fools but merlin isnt for once

Nobody was celebrating. Cedric, Arthur told him, had arrived safely and immediately told Dumbledore what was happening. Merlin nodded numbly, skimming the crowd and finding Cedric standing with his father. Moody limped over to Harry and pulled him away from the chaos. Merlin almost ignored it until it _clicked._

He grabbed Arthur's hand and pulled him back to the castle, ignoring him saying, _"Mer_ lin, what?"

"The map—it repeated Bartimus Crouch's name— _his son was a Death Eater—"_

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Arthur said, but picked up his pace so that Merlin didn't have to pull him. "Where are we going?"

"Moody's classroom. He pulled Harry aside. I don't know what he's getting at, but it can't be good."

A second later, they were invisible, and standing in the doorway of Moody's office.

"Karkaroff's _gone?_ He ran away? But then—he didn't put my name in the goblet?" Harry asked, sinking into his chair in shock.

"No," Moody said. "No, he didn't. It was I who did that."

"Was it now?" Merlin asked, stepping into the room, letting his spell fall away.

Moody whirled around in surprise, aiming his wand at Merlin. "What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? Well, _Bartimus Crouch, jr.,_ I'm here because I noticed you pulling Harry away from the Tournament. What purpose would that have? He just barely survived yet another encounter with Voldemort, and you were pulling him away from his friends?"

Crouch reeled back upon hearing his name. "How did you—"

"Simple, really." Merlin replied. "Who else would be so afraid of your father appearing suddenly that they'd kill him?"

"His _father?"_ Harry asked. "But—Crouch's son died in Azkaban."

"Apparently not." Merlin grimaced.

_"Avada Kedavra!"_ Crouch roared, emerald light crashing from his wand toward Merlin. 

Merlin held up his hand and batted it aside, letting it dissipate in the air. "Must you?"

_"How—"_ Crouch said, then froze as Merlin's magic temporarily paralyzed him.

"Are you alright, Harry?"

Harry nodded, glancing between Merlin and Crouch in confusion, then glanced at the door. Dumbledore was standing there, staring at Crouch in shock.

"How did you stun him?"

"... with… magic… ?" Merlin replied. "Feel free to take over. I was going to have Awstin get you regardless."

Merlin plucked the wand from Crouch's hand and handed it to Dumbledore, who watched him silently. Merlin let the spell fall away, and walked out of the door with Arthur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there's only one more chapter 😭😭😭
> 
> also i have Discovered that wiki has chapter by chapter summaries of books... so hopefully i can at least plan out the next fic? it'd going to be A While tho. feel free to yell at me on instagram (stellatheseraph), twitter (stellatheseraph), discord (stellatheseraph#0329), or via email (stellatheseraph@gmail.com) if i take too long


	27. Chapter 27

The last month of school was the hardest to teach by far. Whispers of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named seemed to take precedence over his class, and about a week after the Triwizard Tournament, Merlin gave up on attempting to teach—especially the fourth years and sixth years.

He spent at least one class a week teaching the actual curriculum he'd written out, and thankfully had taught the majority of the class already. The other classes were spent learning about topics of their choice—most of which were centered around the topic of Voldemort.

Out of curiosity, he created a contest on the last week as to who could perform magic from the Old Religion.—there wasn't a prize, of course, as that wouldn't be fair.

To his surprise, Luna actually managed to perform a spell—leohtbora—to light a torch. 

Nobody else was able to even turn their eyes golden for half a second.

⚡⚡⚡

Merlin slumped against the wall, exhausted. "I think…" He said, "I think I want to skip teaching next year. It's worse than keeping  _ you _ alive for fourteen hundred years."

"No, it isn't." Arthur said softly, carefully taking Merlin's robe off for him.

"It  _ is," _ Merlin complained. "Do you have  _ any idea  _ how much I have to do? I have to grade papers, come up with assignments, keep hundreds of children out of trouble, keep those same children alive—"

"How often have you complained about people trying to kill me?" Arthur asked. "At least only one person is an active target, and the people going after him always try to be flashy. No matter how much I want you to stay home with me next year, you and I both know that's not going to happen."

Arthur reached out to gently cradle Merlin's cheek. Merlin sighed and grabbed his hand, then pressed a kiss against it. "Unfortunately."

Draco made a noise in the back of his throat. "You're being so…  _ couple-y." _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is v short so i kinda feel bad bc it's gonna be the last for a while bc hiatus bc exhaustion and school and writer's block but here's the last chapter imma cry i love you all sm all of your comments have made me so exceptionally happy feel free to contact me i would love to talk to any of you literally just dm or email me or comment you're all so amazing and ahhH 💞💕💞 ty for sticking around imma miss you til the next fic if you can't hmu (or if you don't want to which is valid)

**Author's Note:**

> sorry this one is a little short! the chapter lengths vary a LOT. also... how often would y'all like updates (since it's mostly written)? once a week? biweekly?
> 
> (comments and kudos make me melt but are not required (thank you so much to the TWENTY FIVE (!!!) people who gave me feedback on how to post this))


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